Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Twitterpated/Shatterpated


Ooooh I'd love to use twitterpated in my historical mystery circa 1882, but nope nope nope...
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According to The Online Etymological Dictionary, twitterpated only came into being in 1942. (It sounds so much older, right?) What's more, it was Disney Studios that apparently coined it:
twitterpated: [F]irst attested in the Walt Disney movie "Bambi"... a past-participle adjective formed from twitter in the "tremulous excitement" noun sense (1670s) + pate (n.2) "head".  
Thumper: Why are they acting that way? 
Friend Owl: Why, don't you know? They're twitterpated. 
Flower, Bambi, Thumper: Twitterpated? 
Friend Owl: Yes. Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime. For example: You're walking along, minding your own business. You're looking neither to the left, nor to the right, when all of a sudden you run smack into a pretty face. Woo-woo! You begin to get weak in the knees. Your head's in a whirl. And then you feel light as a feather, and before you know it, you're walking on air. And then you know what? You're knocked for a loop, and you completely lose your head!
However, the word shatterpated is another story. This is what I found in the online 1828 Webster's Dictionary:
1. Disordered or wandering in intellect.
2. Heedless wild; not consistent.
Shatterpated also shows up in A Dictionary of the English LanguageIn which the Words are Deduced from Their Originals; and Illustrated in Their Different Significations, by Examples from the Best Writers: Together with a History of the Language, and an English Grammar, Volume 4 by Samuel Johnson and Henry John Todd, from 1818. The definition: inattentive; not consistent.

So, I'd better not include twitterpated characters in my fictional world of the 1880s, lest I be accused of being shatterpated.


This twitterpation must stop! (Or at least be moved to a different century.)
Les Amants dans la campagne by Gustave Courbet, 1844



2 comments:

Liz V. said...

Shatterpated used to describe Nellie Bly

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3376632/nellie-bly-nhd-project-clipping/

Ann Parker said...

Wow! That's a great clipping, Liz! I love it... 1887, eh? Nellie Bly was quite amazing. I'm bookmarking the article for "future endeavors." Thanks for the link!