twitter

See also: Twitter

English

Etymology

From Middle English twitren, twiteren, from Old English *twiterian, from Proto-Germanic *twitwizōną (“to chirp; twitter”). Cognate with German zwitzern, zwitschern (“to twitter”) and Low German twitteren (“to twitter”). Compare also Dutch kwetteren (“to twitter”), Danish kvidre (“to twitter”), Swedish kvittra (“to twitter”), dialectal Swedish tittra (“to twitter”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtwɪtə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtwɪtɚ/, [ˈtwɪɾɚ]
• Rhymes: -ɪtə(ɹ)

Noun

twitter (countable and uncountable, plural twitters)

1. The sound of a succession of chirps as uttered by birds.

   I often listen to the twitter of the birds in the park.

2. A tremulous broken sound.
3. A slight trembling of the nerves.
4. Unwanted flicker that occurs in interlaced displays when the image contains vertical detail that approaches the horizontal resolution of the video format.
   • 1986, IEEE, Second International Conference on Simulators: 7-11 September 1986 (page 145)

     Interline twitter occurs on interlaced displays at half the field-rate.

Translations

sound made by birds

• Arabic: تَغْرِيد‎ m (taḡrīd)
• Finnish: sirkutus (fi), laulu (fi), viserrys
• German: Zwitschern n
• Italian: cinguettio (it) m

• Portuguese: piar (pt)
• Russian: ще́бет (ru) m (ščébet), щебета́ние (ru) n (ščebetánije), чири́канье (ru) n (čiríkanʹje)
• Scottish Gaelic: ceilear m
• Swedish: kvitter (sv) n

Verb

twitter (third-person singular simple present twitters, present participle twittering, simple past and past participle twittered)

1. (intransitive) To utter a succession of chirps.
   • 1750, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, 1825, The Works of Thomas Gray, Volume I, page 114,

     The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn, / The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,

2. (intransitive, transitive) (of a person) To talk in an excited or nervous manner.
3. To make the sound of a half-suppressed laugh; to titter; to giggle.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of J. Fletcher to this entry?)

4. To have a slight trembling of the nerves; to be excited or agitated.
5. (obsolete, transitive) To twit; to reproach or upbraid.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292:

     I have repented of it many’s the good time and oft. And if he was so good to forgive me a word spoken in haste or so, it doth not become such a one as you to twitter me. He was a husband to me, he was; and if ever I did make use of an ill word or so in a passion, I never called him rascal […]

6. Alternative form of Twitter
   • 2009 March 2, Michelle Levi, “McCain Criticizes Obama On The Senate Floor”, in CBS News‎^[1], retrieved 2 March 2009:

     In addition to listing specific earmarks he finds the most reprehensible, McCain said he has been twittering the “top ten” most egregious

Synonyms

• (internet neologism): tweet

Derived terms

• atwitter

Translations

to utter chirps

• Czech: cvrlikat (cs) impf
• Dutch: tjielpen
• Finnish: sirkuttaa, visertää
• German: zwitschern (de)

• Italian: cinguettare
• Maori: pekī, tihau
• Russian: щебета́ть (ru) impf (ščebetátʹ), чири́кать (ru) impf (čiríkatʹ), чири́кнуть (ru) pf (čiríknutʹ) (semelfactive)
• Swedish: kvittra (sv)

to speak nervously

• Finnish: höpöttää (fi)

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French

Alternative forms

• tweeter

Etymology

From English Twitter

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /twi.te/

Verb

twitter

1. (transitive, intransitive, Internet) to tweet (to post to Twitter)

Conjugation

Conjugation of twitter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

present participle		twittant /twi.tɑ̃/
past participle		twitté /twi.te/
infinitive
simple		twitter
compound		avoir + past participle
gerund1
simple		twittant /twi.tɑ̃/
compound		ayant + past participle
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	twitte /twit/	twittes /twit/	twitte /twit/	twittons /twi.tɔ̃/	twittez /twi.te/	twittent /twit/
	imperfect	twittais /twi.tɛ/	twittais /twi.tɛ/	twittait /twi.tɛ/	twittions /twi.tjɔ̃/	twittiez /twi.tje/	twittaient /twi.tɛ/
	past historic2	twittai /twi.te/	twittas /twi.ta/	twitta /twi.ta/	twittâmes /twi.tam/	twittâtes /twi.tat/	twittèrent /twi.tɛʁ/
	future	twitterai /twi.tʁe/	twitteras /twi.tʁa/	twittera /twi.tʁa/	twitterons /twi.tʁɔ̃/	twitterez /twi.tʁe/	twitteront /twi.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	twitterais /twi.tʁɛ/	twitterais /twi.tʁɛ/	twitterait /twi.tʁɛ/	twitterions /twi.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	twitteriez /twi.tə.ʁje/	twitteraient /twi.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	twitte /twit/	twittes /twit/	twitte /twit/	twittions /twi.tjɔ̃/	twittiez /twi.tje/	twittent /twit/
	imperfect2	twittasse /twi.tas/	twittasses /twi.tas/	twittât /twi.ta/	twittassions /twi.ta.sjɔ̃/	twittassiez /twi.ta.sje/	twittassent /twi.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	twitte /twit/	—	twittons /twi.tɔ̃/	twittez /twi.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 Only usable with preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Related terms

• twit (a tweet (a message on Twitter))
• tweet (a tweet (a message on Twitter))
• twittosphère
• twitteur