David Blaine tw*tdangles into Urban Dictionary

David Blaine has secured his place in lexicographical history by twatdangling his way into the Urban Dictionary. As regular readers will recall, we previously believed the term was coined by a Reg commenter outraged by the gitwizard's's NYC Benito Mussolini impression. However, the word's full etymology has now been revealed …

[Anonymous Coward]

I smell twatshite

"Twattendang", from the Viking "Twtdnglersk"

Interesting a neither word is found via google.

Wonder what references he used to get these words. Or could it be a bit of twatshite © ?

[Sarah Bee]

Re: I smell twatshite

Much old English is actually only found in one dictionary, Gurendell's Booke of the Wuyrde, which is kept in the British Library. You need to apply for permission to view it, and while Lester managed to spend a few minutes browsing it when he came to the top of the waiting list, no one has yet been cleared to add any of its content - nor indeed any reference to it - to the internet. Thus it is unGoogleable. It's an amazing case, which I'd write about myself were I allowed to.

(I know I just referred to it myself but I'll be deleting this comment after you've seen it.)

[Anonymous Coward]

Gurendell's Booke of the Wuyrde

how long before this ends up on the wikipedophile?

[Matt Bradley]

YESSSSS!

Quite right too.

[Anonymous Coward]

Etymology..

Actually, it's surprisingly close to accurate, "dangle" appears to be Danish, and "twat" seems to be connected to old english "thwaite", a common word in the viking ravaged areas of NE England.

However I also suspect it may have something to do with Englethwaite in Cumbria. The hills of the area being renowned for the plethora of danglers from the various rocky outcrops.

[Anonymous Coward]

@stu reeves

It's clearly a fake etymology.

The true etymology is:

David Blaine is a twat.

David Blaine was dangling.

The event, therefore, was called Twatdangling. I have no information on the etymology of the word "twat" or "dangle".

[The Dark Lord]

Words

"Twatdangle" fades into mere greyness in the face of the simple beauty that is "gitwizard".

[Anonymous Coward]

Shall we put in on wikipedia

with a reference to here.

Then you can reference wikipedia.

And so on

[ratbert]

shurely an oversight

how can any story about blaine, especially referring to him as a gitwizard, not give kudos to marcus brigstocke whose scathing rants about the egocentric pseudo-magic nutbag repeatedly brought me to the verge of wetting myself.

i'd even go so far as to put a quid or two on marcus having calling the fool-in-a-box stunt a twatdangle in the first place....

[Jolyon Ralph]

Whooosh

Hear something, Stu?

Jolyon

[Anonymous Coward]

@Stu Reeves

"Interesting a [sic] neither word is found via google."

Not true - I found this entry:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/06/blaine_dictionary/

Is this a googlewhack?

[Charles Ullman]

@ratbert - Brigstocke Seconded

I second the Brigstocke kudos. Surely he came up with gitwizard and twatdangle first?

[Anonymous John]

Re: I smell twatshite

It appears in Beowulf

"WENT he forth to find at fall of night

that haughty house, and heed wherever

the Ring-Danes, twattendang, to rest had gone."

[Julian I-Do-Stuff]

Steady on...

Having got as far as checking the OED only to find

Twat (n) - a risible person, a humourless cretin (c.f. pedant)

I stopped.

(But not before noting the North Frisian connection of dangeln...)

And then there's Blain(e)

"1. An inflammatory swelling or sore on the surface of the body, often accompanied by ulceration; a blister, botch, pustule; applied also to the eruptions in some pestilential diseases"

I don't need a coat - I don't get out much.

[Tim Schomer]

@Stu Reeves / AC

Quite incorrect, this appears to be multiplying, up to 228 a minute ago...

[Robert E A Harvey]

artistically correct

'Twatdangle' requires no deep etymology. It just came into being when it was so desperately required.

I agree that 'GitWizard' was similarly essential, and admire Mr Bruggstoke for his part in it, but surely we can just rejoice that there are two words for Blaine which are so perfect as to be nearly onomatopoeic.

I bet you could try either of them out on an impartial observer and he would guess the subject and the context without error.

paris, 'cos even she would understand.

[Mark]

Re: Re: I smell twatshite

You're not still refering to that Booke of the Wuyrde crap are you? Even contemporary scholars knew that it was a flawed source, given that it consisted of random words made up by the then well-known cult of the Pubic Education, στωικός παιδεία, or ibikos paideia, though they were also sometimes known as Βικιπαίδεια or Bikipaideia, the Biscuit Education.

Whatever their actual name, I think Chaucer makes a reference to their leader, Iannes of Whaeles, calling him a "totalle queynte".

[Sarah Bee]

Re: Re: I smell twatshite

Heh.

[Peyton]

Gurendell's Booke of the Wuyrde

Ahhh great... I'm going to be out and about minding my own business, that post is going to pop into my head, and I'm going to be subject of many odd looks as I'll probably start laughing out loud all over again. Too funny!

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh

I just like saying, or typing, "Twatdangle" when it's appropriate. Great word, thank you Reg.

I'm off to spend a weekend looking for a good time to use "Twatshite" <reaches for railway timetable and a copy of windows 7>

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

one plus one coz it won't fecking realise 1+1 is a title

Twatdangling Gitwizard.

Love it.

[RW]

Twatdangle and gitwizard

Are delightful testimony to the English language's continuing facility in the invention of new words. Their key merits are that they are indubitably English-sounding, unlike many other invented words.

Has anyone sent notice of these to the OED for inclusion in their files? As nonce words, they won't be entered in the main corpus, but they will be kept on file.

Twatshite I'm not so sure about.

[Anonymous Coward]

Gurendell's Booke of the Wuyrde

One interesting fact about Gurendell's famed book is that it omitted the word "GOELLIB", which is the Old English root of the word "gullible".

[jake]

Gurendell's Booke of the Wuyrde?

Shouldn't that be Grendel's Booke of Wyrdes?

Insert "yo modor" joke here ...

[James]

hmmm... no sense of humour

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/twat_dangle

[James]

they missed this one though

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_Wizard

although some dangletard removed Marcus' quote which you can see here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Blaine&oldid=271339617

[Vincent Ballard]

@Mark

"στωικός παιδεία, or ibikos paideia"

I think that's the first time I've seen "στω" transliterated "ib".

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey

Have you all become part of discworld?

[Angus]

I am with The Dark Lord

I prefer the term "gitwizard", which I think rolls off the tongue easier.

[Pete]

In Australia

In Australia, a twat, is a vagina.

Thus twatdangle refers to the length of the labia minora.

[pctechxp]

I coin a new phrase

Dickdent

Definition

Publicity seeking dickhead hanging upside down suspended from apparatus in a public place.

[John Sykes]

Gitwizard etymology

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Blaine&oldid=240506266

Shame it was deleted

[Mark]

@ Vincent Ballard

You're quite right to pick up on that - should have been ηβικός παιδεία.

[Anonymous Coward]

Booke of the Wuyrde

ODFO, shurely a Terry Prachet creation....

Paris, another well know tw.. Oh figure it out for yourselves

[Sceptical Bastard]

@ Julian

"I don't need a coat - I don't get out much."

Brilliant! I'll use that as often as I can get away with.

As to the story itself, see what trouble that bloody Blaine's causing? Shoot the bastard, I say.