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Twitter and tweeting began in 2006, and two years later folks were referring to those who tweet as tweeps. (The word tweep persisted despite a reproach by one blogger in 2008: "Do not post Good morning Twitter peeps! the second you wake up. Or some even more annoying variation like Yo Tweeps!") Today, the portmanteau tweep is easy to accept with the omnipresence of Twitter: it's a blend of Twitter's tweet and slang's peeps. The slang use of peeps for "people" became common sometime around the mid-20th century. In a 1951 article in the Chicago Tribune, for example, it was reported that "high schoolers are greeting each other with 'Hi, peeps' (short for 'hello, people,' of course)."
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“Tweep.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tweep. Accessed 1 Oct. 2026.
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