Multi-American ®

Photo by TexasT

A recent post on the neologism Googlear has inspired two related entries to Multi-American’s evolving cultural mashup dictionary: The social media mashup terms Twittear and Feisbuk.

First, the Wiktionary definition of twittear:

Etymology

From the online microblogging website, Twitter.

Verb

twittear (first-person singular present twitteo, first-person singular preterite twitteé, past participle twitteado)

1. (Internet) to tweet

I’ve used and heard “twittear” among Spanish-English bilinguals for quite a while, but there’s also this adaptation below, as posted in the comments under the “googlear” post by ar2ro:

more than likely i see “el twitter” being used more in time than “twittear.”

ex: ya mandaste el tweet? (did you send the tweet?)
mire tu mesaje en el twitter. (i saw you message on twitter)
me gusta el twitter (i like twitter)

twittear somehow does not sound right. even googlear sounds a bit funky, but does roll off the tongue in spanish rather well.

Then there’s Feisbuk, which began as a Spanish-friendly unofficial phonetic spelling for “Facebook” but has taken on a life of its own. There are Feisbuk Facebook pages, a spoof analog version, even a page inspired by an alternate pronunciation (“Feisbul”) called “mi mama dice feisbul,” or “my mother says feisbul.”

“Twittear” has been similarly inspirational: There’s a Twittear.com, described in Spanish as “a place where people can meet and leave their ‘twitts.’ ”

The cultural mashup dictionary kicked off earlier this month with the etymology of the term 1.5 generation. Have suggestion for an entry? Feel free to post it below.