Next Stop Twatt!
On my tour to find Britain’s fantastically filthy placenames, I’ve traveled throughout the nation, looking for out a few of its most memorably obscene-sounding place names. This time, I’m able to make my subsequent cease: Twatt!
What is Twatt?
Twatt is a small village in Shetland, simply south of Lerwick. It lends its title to a close-by bay and to an previous manor property which was granted to William Bruce within the late seventeenth Century.
Though as we speak the village is thought primarily for farming, its etymology displays the extra risque existence of its previous inhabitants.
Scandalous Origins
The origin of Twatt’s title is a supply of debate as varied theories exist:
- It could also be derived from Old Norse “Þveit” – a small piece of land
- It might have come from “Twathill” – that means a hill between two streams
- Some recommend the title might have been an adaptation of “Tving” – an archaic time period for a battle formation
There’s additionally an unconfirmed native concept that it derives from “Twa Leep”, that means two pillars. It is claimed that the pillars had been repurposed by the principle landlord on the time, as a quirk amusement, to hold his long-suffering tenants whose arrears of lease had been excessive.
Conclusion
Though lots of its raunchier theories stay uncorroborated, Twatt undoubtedly stands as certainly one of Scotland’s most comically rude-sounding place-names. Though this comicality continues to drive a certain quantity of fascination within the small village, it is vital to recollect the extra critical implications of its attainable etymologies.