#ttrttpt.

If you’re not on Twitter that will mean nothing to you. Even if you are on Twitter it might not mean very much.

It’s a hashtag, obviously, and it stands for “this tweet refers to the previous tweet”.

Like Robyn Gallagher, who has written on its extraneous charms on her blog, I took a while to work out what #ttrttpt meant. I thought at first it was a kind of drum-roll. Others have mistaken it for an expressive fart, or whistle, or similar.

It seems it was invented – with tongue tucked in cheek – by Christchurch writer and poet Megan Clayton. Though Jake Quinn offers an alternative provenance.

Whatever. Certainly it was born in New Zealand – and remains an almost exclusively (though widespread) New Zealand hashtag, usually employed with a New Zealand whimsy.

The best thing, I reckon, about #ttrttpt is that it lets you see a series of second halves, or afterthoughts, floating together, free of context.

Here, for example, is a collection of tweets referring to previous tweets – drawn entirely from last week’s tweets tagged #ttrttpt. A found doggerel, call it.

#ttrttpt – found Twitter doggerel

Storified by Toby Manhire · Thu, Aug 16 2012 23:15:48

Postscript/Update: It’s been pointed out to me that I searched for #ttrtpt, rather than #ttrttpt. Which is a bit daft. But buggered if I’m going to do the whole thing over again.