The word "twee" and post-colonial Britain

Dick Heath wrote: goose wrote: [QUOTE=Wrath_of_Ninian] "Posh" comes from the old shipping ticket designation:  Port Out Starboard Home.  It pertained to the much desired cabins on transatlantic crossings due to their orientation towards/away from the sun.  Only rich people could afford them, and consequently the term came to be used to describe them.  Another famous acronym from the shipping world: Store High In Transit.  No further explanation necessary. Sorry to disappoint you, but they're both myths .

I shall damn well burn that Urban Legends book - none of its real...

Next you'll be telling me that they DIDN'T find that scuba diver in the burning forest they'd been dropping seawater on...

You Brits make a simple language complicated

In a world in which English is the most ubiquitous of all languages, (Chinese and Spanish relying on concentrated populations), we Brits need to keep something of our own. American English has, to a degree, rubbed off on our youth of late, though somethings will never cross over, (I've yet to hear any Brit use the words "neat" or "swell", meaning "good".)

Some of Britain's hiphop types, however, have taken to ending questions with the superfluous preposition "at".

"Where are my keys at?", "Where's your trailer-park at?",

This is so wrong, I don't know where to begin, though in the US it seems perfectly acceptable.(Please tell me I'm wrong Peter.)

Languages are like garden tools. You lend them out to neighbours, and when you finally get them back they're broken..

Wrath_of_Ninian wrote: "Posh" comes from the old shipping ticket designation:  Port Out Starboard Home.  It pertained to the much desired cabins on transatlantic crossings due to their orientation towards/away from the sun.  Only rich people could afford them, and consequently the term came to be used to describe them.  Another famous acronym from the shipping world: Store High In Transit.  No further explanation necessary.

Sorry to disappoint you, but they're both myths .

"Posh" comes from the old shipping ticket designation:  Port Out Starboard Home.  It pertained to the much desired cabins on transatlantic crossings due to their orientation towards/away from the sun.  Only rich people could afford them, and consequently the term came to be used to describe them.  Another famous acronym from the shipping world: Store High In Transit.  No further explanation necessary.

"Twee" was invented to describe Pete Sinfield.  NO other word could effectively summarise his knuckle-gnawingly benign, trans-fantasial candyflossical popsicle treacle prose.  Other twee-huggers include Greg Lake, Camel, Belle & Sebastian, Bjork and the Pastilles

Man Erg wrote: A bit like The Twees by Rush?

That was the day Geddy lost his front teeth and sounded like Tweetybird.

Interesting debate. I had a similar discussion with Sean Trane yesterday regarding the meaning of 'cheesy' His reaction to MY interpretation of that word was similar to your reaction to twee, bluetailfly.

The word 'twee' is used as a derogaotry term, to describe too much of a 'nice' thing. Its hard to pin point that line where genuinely beautiful music becomes too sugar laden. Imagine if you baked a cake and smothered it in icing, and thought 'that icing is delicious, I'm going to put another two inches worth on the cake' Is the cake still nice? Or is it too sweet?? The basic conponants are fine in correctly measured proportions, beyond that..its ruined. Silly analogy really, but you get my idea.

Its all down to where you as an individual draw that line between beauty and 'twee' in music. I once played 'The Camera Eye' by Rush to someone at school. He p!ssed himself laughing when Geddy Lee started singing, saying 'That sounds really twee, really GAY'  So for him twee equated to 'Gay' Needless to say were not actually friends!! But my point is, his idea of twee was somebody singing tunefully, and not screaming or rapping..

My idea of 'twee' is 'The Circus of heaven' by Yes. When Jon Andersons son starts going on about lions, candy floss and the lack of clowns it makes the milk in my fridge curdle. I have to admit I cant tell whether Yes are presenting us with a serious song, or whether they are taking the p!ss on a massive level.

bluetailfly wrote: Reed Lover wrote: Twee means excessively nice or pretty in an artificial way. I.e.  nauseating!

See that's what I mean: someone who interprets Genesis or Yes as "excessively nice or pretty in an artificial way" is really revealing more about their fears than about the music. Because I think anyone with a healthy psyche would not detect that at all.

That's why I am theorizing that it must have something to do with the decline of British influence in world affairs. To admit to liking "twee-ness" (for conservative British types hung up on Britain's "glory days") is like admiting the flaw in heart of the colonial venture, when in reality "twee-ness" actually allows for better foreign relations (though not for colonial exploitation).

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Tweech his own!

bluetailfly wrote: I often will peruse the album reviews to get a sense of which album to buy or to see how others rate an album I like or dislike and I find that the word "twee" appears rather often. And from what I can tell it seems to be a British colloquialism of some sort that is used in a derogatory fashion to denote that something is too effeminate or naively-sentimental or something. The word twee seems pops up a lot in Genesis album reviews and also in reference to Jon Anderson's lyrics, denoting that the tunes are less than manly or something--as if the reveiwer is saying, "This isn't the progressive rock that would have inspired our ancestors to colonize India, by jove!" It seems odd that there are prog music fans that get hung up on whether or not the prog rock they're listening to is excessively "twee." Seems more like the listener's personal problem. But hey, that's just me.

Twee means excessively nice or pretty in an artificial way.

I.e.  nauseating!