- Today's Word
Twitterpated
[TWIT-er-pay-ted]
Definition
- (verb) The feeling of being completely enamored, infatuated, or overcome with romantic feelings. It often refers to the giddy, excited state one experiences when falling in love or developing a strong crush.
Example
As soon as he saw his high school sweetheart at the reunion, John became completely twitterpated, stumbling over his words and blushing like a teenager.
Fun Fact
The term “twitterpated” was popularized by the 1942 Disney animated film “Bambi.” In the movie, Friend Owl uses the word to describe the way animals behave when they fall in love during springtime. Despite its relatively recent coinage, the word has entered common usage, particularly in describing the early stages of romantic attraction. Its whimsical sound perfectly captures the fluttery, excited feeling of new love, making it a favorite among those describing romantic situations in a lighthearted way.
(adjective) Deliberately untrustworthy and deceitful; guilty of betraying trust or breaking faith.
The perfidious advisor had been leaking confidential strategy to competitors for years, all while accepting promotions and praise from the company he was quietly destroying.
Perfidious derives from the Latin perfidiosus, meaning “treacherous,” rooted in perfidia — “faithlessness” — built from per- (“through” or “away”) and fides (“faith” or “trust”). The same root fides gives us fidelity, confide, and fiduciary — making perfidious the dark twin of an entire family of words built on trust and loyalty. It entered English in the 16th century and has carried its sense of calculated, deliberate betrayal ever since.