Etymograph

English

twitter

Twitter comes from Middle English twitren, from Old English *twiterian, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *twitwizōną ‘to chirp’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*twitwizōną1‘to chirp’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*twitwiʀōn1reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*twiterian1reconstructed
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500twitren1
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1616–1619twitter1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English twitter
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1616–1619, The Loyal Subiect: “Oh, the young handsom wenches, how they twitter'd, /…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*twitwizōnąWiktionary, English twitter‘to chirp’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*twitwiʀōnWiktionary, English twitterreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*twiterianWiktionary, English twitterreconstructed
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500twitrenWiktionary, English twitter
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1616–1619twitterWiktionary, English twitter. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1616–1619, The Loyal Subiect: “Oh, the young handsom wenches, how they twitter'd, /…”

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *twitwizōną

Today it means

noun The sound of a succession of chirps as uttered by birds.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “twitter”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *twitwizōną / twitter

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