twerp means A fool, a twit.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, twerp ranks #7,338 of 42,762 for Qualifying.
twerp is pronounced /twɝp/.
Etymology
Of uncertain origin; originally British slang of the 1910s. In a letter, dated 6 October 1944, J. R. R. Tolkien mentions a contemporary of his at Oxford University T.W. Earp, calling him "the original twerp"; but no corroborating evidence for this etymology has come to light. Other suggestions include: a clipping of Antwerp (“type of racing pigeon that flew between Antwerp and London”); the onomatopoeic twirp (“imitation of the sound of a bird”); a dialectal variant of dwarf (compare Middle English dwerf); Welsh twp (“a fool”).
noun
- A fool, a twit.e.g.“Now you've broken it, you twerp!”
- A small or puny person; one regarded as insignificant, contemptible.e.g.“Get out of my way, you little twerp!”
- A person who can be bullied playfully, or easily teased. Sometimes used as a pet-name (often for a younger sibling).
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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