twerk

English

Pronunciation

  • (General American) IPA(key): /twɛɹk/, [tʰw̥ɝk]
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /twɜːk/, [tw̥ɜːk]
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)k

Etymology 1

Woman twerking at a Holi festival in The Hague in 2008.

Blend of twitch + jerk. The "sexually suggestive movements, especially dance" sense was particularly popularized since c. 2000 by US hip-hop, and again in 2013 by singer Miley Cyrus.

Noun

twerk (plural twerks)

  1. A fitful movement similar to a twitch or jerk.
    • 1898, William Brigham, “Director's Report”, in Occasional Papers of the Bernice Pauahi Museum, volume 1, number 1, page 42:
      "Not so the Freycineti, who looked me over critically, elevated his head crest, and giving his tail an odd little twerk, proceeded to hop deliberately up the limb like a sap-sucker..."
    • 1920, Lilian C. McNamara Garis, The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest: Or, The Wig Wag Rescue, page 86:
      "I hardly realize it yet that you are my really truly coz," and she gave the girl's long, brown braids a familiar twerk.
    • 1950, Robert S. Close, Love Me Sailor, page 86:
      With a quick twerk at her shift, the girl lifted it to her rounded belly, and squatted nakedly on his lap.
  2. (informal) A dance involving sexual movements of the hips and buttocks.
    • 2016, Jacqueline Warwick, Allison Adrian, editors, Voicing Girlhood in Popular Music, Routledge, →ISBN:
      It was the twerk that bounced around the world in less than a day. Sound bites from reporters said, “Miley Cyrus’s JAW-DROPPING TWERK-a-thon,” the “twerk-tacular,” “twerk-and-tongue work,” in the “twerk seen ’round the world!

Verb

twerk (third-person singular simple present twerks, present participle twerking, simple past and past participle twerked)

  1. To twitch or jerk.
    • 1985, Criena Rohan, Down by the Docks, page 151:
      [] in the language of the unsophisticated Port Melbourne suburbanite a bed was still something primarily intended for love-making – all the eyebrow-raising and moustache-twerking in Jo'burg couldn't alter that.
    • 2005, Florence Hall Abssi, The Call, page 613:
      He twerked an eyebrow at his wife.
  2. (informal) To move the body in a sexually suggestive twisting or gyrating fashion, especially as a dance.
    • 2005, Euftis Emery, Off the Chain, →ISBN, page 73:
      Gaea then stood up over me and turned so that her butt was facing me. She then had the nerve to start twerking.
    • 2006, Lawrence Christopher, Ghettoway Weekend, →ISBN, page 96:
      "Shortie really knows how to twerk it don't she?" Marcus boasted, while still recording.
    • 2006, “SexyBack”, in FutureSex/LoveSounds, performed by Justin Timberlake ft. Timbaland:
      Let me see what ya twerkin with / Look at those hips
    • 2013, Nichole Smith, “High School Students Suspended for Twerking”, in ABC News:
      Twerking, as it is known in the hip-hop community, is a hard-hitting, rump-shaking dance move that celebrities including Beyonce and Miley Cyrus have been known to bust out, but it has also gotten a group of San Diego high school students suspended.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

Blend of twerp + jerk, found primarily in the 1930s-era works of Walter Dumaux Edmonds.

Noun

twerk (plural twerks)

  1. (slang, dated, US) A puny or insignificant person, generally male; a twerp.
    • 1930, Walter Dumaux Edmonds, The Big Barn, page 207:
      "'...but when they load a pack onto you, what'll you do? A little twerk like you?'"
    • 1932, Forum and Century, volume 87:
      "But even then the poor twerk's whiskers and little eyes looked kind of wistful as if the clothes had got him and was taking him somewhere..."
    • 2003, Bernard Kamoroff, Small Time Operator, →ISBN, page 19:
      You don't need those twerks who walk in off the street.

Etymology 3

Onomatopoeic, possibly coined by Roger Tory Peterson.

Noun

twerk (plural twerks)

  1. An abrupt call, such as that made by the California quail.
    • 1961, Roger Tory Peterson, A Field Guide to Western Birds, page 67:
      Note of male on territory, a loud kurr or twerk.

Further reading

Polish

twerk

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English twerk.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /twɛrk/
  • Rhymes: -ɛrk
  • Syllabification: twerk

Noun

twerk m inan

  1. twerk (dance involving sexual movements of the hips and buttocks)
    Synonym: twerking

Declension

Further reading

  • twerk at Obserwatorium językowe Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
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