I'm one of those people who gets upset when the English language is butchered. I won't claim that my usage is perfect, but I am relatively literate.
Unfortunately, I even manage to get irritated when slang terms are misused. That brings us to the title of today's post, the word "twink". (N.B.: The period after "twink" is outside the quotation mark, because the mark does not contain a quoted phrase.)
As I originally understood the term, "twink" was derived from the snack food known as a Twinkie, as both the food and the boys known as "twinks" were thin/smooth, blond and, one imagines, full of cream.
Lately, every handsome young man seems to be referred to as a twink. Clearly, some among us have lost their way. Maybe it's just me, but these little things really irritate me!
12 comments:
Don't even get me started on this either.
Perhaps we should expand the lexicon? Boys could come in other varieties: Swiss Rolls, Ding-Dongs, Snowballs, tea cakes... the list goes on.
And I agree with T. Johnston: Unlike the snack cake of the same name, the designation "Twink" doesn't last forever.
I've noticed that the term "bear" is being used now more and more for guys with more mainstream grooming and body type, particularly by the purveyors of porn. It seems now that any man with a little body hair that hasn't been shaved off, a neatly close-cropped beard or goatee, and maybe fifteen extra pounds on him is being marketed as a bear. Sad when the grand old traditions are ignored. :-)
Yeah, Russian-based porn sites use the word "twink" way too liberally. I'm sorry, blurry pictures of furry 30-somethings with fluffy hair and mustaches from the early 80s don't count.
Twink to me is a real derogatory term. Twink calls to mind guilty little candybar boys with no substance then a eye full of splooge you'll recieve for your effort. And now that I've written that, really doesn't seem that bad. Cause you really don't want to talk to them anyway, just get their pants unzipped.
kb
A comment from the other side here :-) My gay male friends use the word twinkie to refer to the bars where the pretty boys go, the non-Eagle type guys...so yes, referring to all handsome guys as twinks seems out of place.
As an aside, what does N.B. mean?
CD: N.B. stands for nota bene. It's fancy lawyerspeak for "note well". :-)
Jess - Thanks for the definition. I am reading a french grammar book that uses NB too, but I wasn't able to find it defined anywhere!
CD: Glad to help!
Allz I can do is add a "hear, hear!" I mean, a twink used to be what I called the impossibly skinny, blond bubble heads I would never imagine humping. Now they're calling guys like Josh Duhamel "twink." Um, no.
John Cameron Mitchell, minus 10 years and brains and all creativity might be a twink.
Then again, I've heard the term otter used before...And not so disparagingly: otters were the brainier, "more real" ones.
Still sounds nasty, tho'...
Then again, maybe "otters" are just chunky young smooth bears...
N.B.: Unless you're British, you're slightly off-base about a period or comma ever going outside a quotation mark. The rule that you cite only applies to exclamation points and question marks. Commas and periods are always inside.
Aside from my AMA and APA style guides I checked before I commented, here are some other sources as documentation:
http://dictionary.reference.com/writing/styleguide/punctuation.html
http://www.sportsci.org/jour/9901/wghstyle.html#punctuation
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/research/puncquotes.html
http://www.englishrules.com/writing/2005/quotation-marks.php
And now that you hate me for correcting you, feel free to delete. Otherwise, nice blog!
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