Thursday, April 26, 2012

Betweee* (for Between)

Twee, though difficult to define, means cloyingly sweet or aggressively adorable, dainty, quaint, sentimental, etc. A certain strain of "indie pop" is often described as twee. Adults dressed as children are generally considered twee. Practically all of Japanese culture is twee (including their response to nuclear disaster!), a concept perhaps best illustrated by the iconic image known in children's toy stores (and the closets of many grown women) as "Hello Kitty." Kittens of all stripes are almost certain to be twee. Although I've never posted a cat picture before (LOL or otherwise), this was the tweeest (?!) thing I could find today to illustrate this entry. In Dutch, twee means two, so if one too-cute cat isn't quite enough for you, here are a rather twee twee from 1874. There were 30 examples of this typo in OhioLINK, and 430 in WorldCat.

(A particularly cute abandoned kitten, May 2008, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid


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