What is the origin of the slang word twerp?
Betty, QLD Twerp (or twirp) nincompoop appeared out of the blue in the early 1900s. No one is sure of its origin. Its first recorded usage is from a 1925 book called Soldier and Sailor Words, although it was undoubtedly around before that time. There is a tantalising Tolkien quotation given in the Oxford English Dictionary which might well provide the clue to, if not its origin, then at least its popularity: He lived in O[xford] at the time when we lived in Pusey Street (rooming with Walton, the composer, and going about with T. W. Earp, the original twerp. Tolkien may well have coined the word on the basis of the initials and surname of his Oxford associate T.W Earp (who apparently was a bit of an odd ball!) certainly the timing is right. However, I do not believe the word would have caught on in this way if it hadnt been for other supporting tw words, such as twit and also twat (a word that originally referred to vagina, but in the early 1900s had been recruited, like many other bawd
