Weird Twitter Terms and How to Interpret Them

Twitter is the place where trends are formed. It offers one of the greatest tools for generating and sharing content on the web, not to mention a source for sparking whole movements. So it isn’t surprising that a new language has been building on the social networking site.

But while some of the terms are more obvious and easy to understand, others are a bit more obscure. Some are just plain weird or don’t make much sense. Most tend to fall into a niche based around the person or group that coined them.

How Are Twitter Terms Created?

Technically, anyone can make their own Twitter terms. All it takes is a little twist or combination of any normal word, in association with ‘Twitter’ or ‘Tweet’. Sounds easy, right?

The hard part comes in when you try to spread that word around. Many are coined by average people, but they tend to either have a decent following, or at least be connected with some kind of website or Twitter account that does.

Once a term has been created and explained on the user’s account or through another’s feed, it can become a hashtag to further spread. However, through using hashtags you might come to see that your new creation has already been created and used before.

Here are ten terms from Twitter that you probably don’t know, but should.

1. Twitterize – To take a normal phrase and turn it into something that is Twitter specific, such as every word on this list.
2. Tweesciple – Someone who constantly retweets the tweets of someone they admire. Might also be called ‘Tweetsessed’ or ‘Twitsessed’.
3. Twoodle – The act of tweeting out of boredom, usually during some kind of wait or activity that has not managed to hold your attention.
4. Fa-bweeting – To use both Twitter and Facebook simultaneously, either through a syncing program or double tab in your browser.
5. Attwaction – A crush on a fellow Twitter member. Can also be used to convey a general attraction.
6. EvesTweeting – To comment on a conversation between two people you were not originally meant to be a part of.
7. Friendscraping – The process of following people found either from a friend’s list or via a bot.
8. Naked Twits – Updates on a person’s Twitter that have not been protected under a security setting, and so available for anyone to see.
9. Narcissitwit – Someone who so loves their own tweets that they constantly tweet, retweet, comment on their tweets and defend anything they say.
10. Twafficking – Anybody who posts, offers or deals in “illegal” tweets by following and commenting to new Twitter users who won’t know any better.

Tools!

Tool	What it is?	Rating	More tools like that?
Twictionary	A user generated of Twitter-specific *weird* terms. All terms are on the same page, so just use CTRL+F to check if any phrase is documented there		TwitterSpeak at Mashable
Twittonary	A more enhanced Twitter dictionary. Terms are moderated before being added. You can browse it by letter or use the search field.
Urban Dictionary	User-generated dictionary of the modern (slang) English language. Each word may have many definitions. Definitions are commented and rated by users.		SEO & the Value of User-Generated Dictionaries
Hashtags.org	The oldest and one of the most complete online dictionary of twitter hashtags. For each hashtag see the trend graph to get an idea of its popularity.		Ultimate Guide to Twitter Hashtags

Conclusion

If you come across a term on Twitter that you don’t understand, don’t feel bad about it. There are so many odd little phrases that have been created on the site that it is impossible to know them all by heart, much less understand each one.

What are some of the weird terms you have found on Twitter?

Image Credits: 1, 2.