Thank — or blame — a poet for "twitter"
It's true. The first use of "twitter," or to be more precise, "twiterith," was by Geoffrey Chaucer, 14th century author of "The Canterbury Tales" who is reputed to have introduced some 2,200 words to the English language.
Here's a surprisingly entertaining round-up — even if you're not a word geek, and I really am not — of a few other interesting coinages. I am bigly disappointed, I must say, that "betweenity" never made it into common usage. Maybe we should try again!
Eight Words That Changed The Way We Think
by Kelly Grovier, BBC Culture