# twerk
## English
### Pronunciation

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

### Etymology 1

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

#### Noun

twerk (plural twerks)
* 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.
* (informal) A sexually-suggestive dance, generally involving the performer thrusting their hips back from a low squatting stance and shaking, bouncing, or wiggling their 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)
* 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.
* (informal) To perform a twerk 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

* twerkalicious
* twerkathon
* twerker
* twerktastic

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

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

#### Noun

twerk (plural twerks)
* (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)
* 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

* “twerk”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* “twerk”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

#### External links

* Twerking on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

## Polish
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English twerk.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈtwɛrk/
* Rhymes: -ɛrk
* Syllabification: twerk

### Noun

twerk m inan
* twerk (dance involving sexual movements of the hips and buttocks)
    Synonym: twerking

#### Declension
### Further reading

* twerk at Obserwatorium językowe Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego