Eric Thayer/Reuters Miley Cyrus offers a visual definition of the word “twerk†at the MTV Video Music Awards with Robin Thicke on Sunday.In the days following Miley Cyrus’s much-discussed bump-and-grind performance at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, the word “twerk†â€" that is, to dance “in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance†â€" seems to be ubiquitous. It’s on the tip of the tongue of nearly every television host, and a search of LexisNexis archives turns up the word in more than 250 news articles in the last week alone.
“Won’t twerking just go away?†the linguistically aggrieved ask. Well, no â€" and, in fact, the word is getting some acknowledgment from one of the English language’s most august reference volumes.
The Oxford English Dictionary said that it would add twerk to its listings as part of a quarterly online update, The Associated Press reported. A definition for twerk can be found at oxforddictionaries.com (where helpful examples of the word’s use include “just wait till they catch their daughters twerking to this songâ€).
Though the word twerk may seem all too of the moment, Katherine Connor Martin, an editor at the Oxford Dictionaries site, told The A.P. that this verb was probably about two decades old.
“There are many theories about the origin of this word, and since it arose in oral use, we may never know the answer for sure,†Ms. Martin said. “We think the most likely theory is that it is an alteration of work, because that word has a history of being used in similar ways, with dancers being encouraged to ‘work it.’ The ‘t’ could be a result of blending with another word such as twist or twitch.â€
Other neologisms that are twerking â€" excuse us, working â€" their way into the O.E.D.’s updates include “selfie,†another bane of grown-up English speakers, which describes “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media Web site.â€
