Mashable recently posted a guide to “Twitterspeak: 66 Twitter terms you don’t need to know.” And you don’t. But some are actually becoming widely used, so are worth noting:
- tweeple: Twitter people, Twitter members, Twitter users.
- tweetup: when twitterers meet in person – a Twitter meet up.
- twitosphere: community of twitterers.
- twitterati: The A-list twitterers.
Others are less common, but amusing nonetheless:
- dweet: tweet sent while intoxicated.
- tweepish: feeling sheepish or regretful about something you tweeted.
- twaiting: twittering while waiting.
- twiking: biking while twittering via text.
- twinkedIn: inviting friends made on Twitter to connect with you on LinkedIn.
Some are, well, a bit more of a reach:
- twittercal mass: a community that has achieved a critical mass of twitterers.
- twitterlooing: twittering from a bathroom.
- twitterpated: to be overwhelmed with Twitter messages.
- twitterrhea: the act of sending too many Twitter messages.
Moreso than other social networks, Twitter seems to revel in this kind of excessive coinage of neologisms. Perhaps it’s because the 140 character limit enforces economy of expression, or because, I suspect, the most active members of the twitterati also tend to be glib people who enjoy wordplay. Or maybe it’s an “in-crowd” thing, that just by using one or more of these rather silly terms among friends, you are identified as one of those tweeps in the know.