https://www.oglaf.com/ruin/

That made me curious about the etymology:

thwart (adv.)

late 14c., thwert, "from side to side, across, transversely; crosswise, across the grain," earlier in the same sense thwertover (c. 1200), overthwert (c. 1300), from a Scandinavian source, probably Old Norse þvert "across," originally neuter of thverr (adj.) "transverse, across," from Proto-Germanic *thwerh- "twisted, oblique," which according to Watkins is from PIE root *terkw- "to twist."

It is thus cognate with Old English þweorh "transverse, perverse, angry, cross," and the Proto-Germanic word also is the source of Middle Dutch dwers, Dutch dwars "cross-grained, contrary," Old High German twerh, German quer, Gothic þwairhs "angry."

The spelling shifted to -a- from 15c. From mid-13c. as an adjective, "contrary, stubborn, obstinate;" earlier overthwert, thwertover "blatant, outright" (c. 1200). As a preposition from early 15c., "across, athwart, from one side to the other."

Least nsfw oglaf i've ever seen

"þvert", you say ...

Terkw?. Twerk?

þere are þose who þink þat þe þorn will þwart AI...

but it's actually just annoying.

Wait so simple direction signifier into an argumentative / rhetorical diss (one assumes, overthwert), into an adjective about being a stubborn jerk, into a verb about stubborn-jerking someone else from doing something, to thwart.

Meanwhile there's an ongoing history of whatever approximates "clinical" vocabulary for contemporary understanding of disabilities (a la idiot, imbecile, etc.) - words being originally descriptive / diagnostic, and then adapted over time for use as insults, then worse, necessitating new "unflavored" words for the (ideally merely) descriptive purposes, and the cycle repeats.

All that to say, amazing how much language changes by humans wanting to say jerky things to each other and co-opt other meanings into dickhead rhetoric over time lmao.

To twist that thang

i'm glad to learn that this has a name and i'll think of it the next time it happens. lol