Twistian
English
Etymology
Twist + -ian
Adjective
Twistian (comparative more Twistian, superlative most Twistian)
- Of or relating to Oliver Twist (from the 1838 novel by Charles Dickens), a mistreated orphan who scandalizes the workhouse by daring to ask for more food.
- 1995, Patricia J. Williams, The Rooster's Egg, page 89:
- It's the kind of Oliver Twistian advice given frequently to blacks deemed middle class: be grateful for the gruel because children are starving in the inner cities.
- 2000, David Day, My First Life, page lx:
- Worst of all, it was the parents of children who learned easily who supported this behavior. They should have known that treating children in a Twistian manner was bound to have negative effects.
- 2003, Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Victorian Literature and the Victorian State, page 61:
- Thus, the Twistian workhouse is a symptom, not a cause, and Dickens's interest in it is subordinate to a full-scale social critique.
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