Twee

Q From Peppel: In your answer to the question about goody two shoes on the web site, there is a word twee. I can’t find it, other than a noise made by a small bird, and I would like to know its meaning.

A Ah yes, another of my curious Briticisms. It means excessively or affectedly quaint, sentimental or mawkish, sometimes coupled with words like nauseatingly. It’s a strongly negative word, and a very useful one, that is in common British use. It appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century to mean something dainty or sweet, a girly and gushing word. It appears to have developed from tweet, not the noise a bird makes, but a childish attempt at saying sweet. It might have been helped along by a feeling that it could be a blend of tiny and wee (Scots for small), though it isn’t.