Twerp

In an episode of the TV series Psych (He Dead, season 4, episode 2) Detective Lassiter says "You were acting like an obnoxious little twerp", to which Shawn Spencer replies, "It's nice to hear the word twerp has survived the millennium".

My sentiments exactly.  This lovely little word doesn't seem to be used much anymore.

This slang word does not have a long history.  It's not known where it came from, but started to appear about 1925.  Twerp means a stupid, undesirable or inferior person.  That seems a little harsh.  Whenever I have heard the word used, it is used more affectionately.  In the TV series mentioned above, Shawn is often an idiot, but not stupid, undesirable or inferior.  This is just one example of how the meaning and usage of a word can change over time.  And also how some words may have a long history and others come and go within a century.  Twerp is being lost, and it's not even a century old.  How sad.

Sources:
Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (1988), Chambers.


Juliana