twin
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: twĭn
ipa: /twɪn/
ipa: [tʰw̥ɪn]
rhymes: -ɪn
Forms: form: twins
form: twinning
form: twinned
form: twinned
form: twynne
Etymology: PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Middle English twinne, twynne, from Old English ġetwin, ġetwinn (“twin, multiple”, noun) and twinn (“twin, two-fold, double, two by two”, adjective), from Proto-Germanic *twinjaz, *twinahz (“two each”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwino- (“twin”), from *dwóh₁ (“two”). Cognate with Scots twyn (“twin”), Dutch tweeling (“twin”), German Zwilling (“twin”), Danish tvilling (“twin”), Swedish tvilling (“twin”), Faroese tvinnur (“a double set”), Icelandic tvenna (“duo, pair”), Lithuanian dvynys (“twin”), Russian двойня (dvojnja, “twin”).
Senses: qualifier: obsolete outside Scotland
glosses: To separate, divide.
qualifier: obsolete outside Scotland
glosses: To split, part; to go away, depart.
examples: text: Reading, the English town, is twinned with Clonmel in Ireland.
text: Coventry twinned with Dresden as an act of peace and reconciliation, both cities having been heavily bombed during the war.
text: Still we moved / Together, twinned, as horse's ear and eye.
ref: 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part 1”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
text: Yet, Manet heightens its effect by performing the clever ocular trick of practically twinning her with her pictorial counterpart, Madame Lejosne.
ref: 2006, Aruna D'Souza, Tom McDonough, Tom Mc Donough, The Invisible Flâneuse?: Gender, Public Space, and Visual Culture in Nineteenth-century Paris, Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 60:
glosses: To join, unite; to form links between (now especially of two places in different countries); to pair with.
examples: text: “I’ve run to tell ye,” said the junior shepherd, supporting his exhausted youthful frame against the doorpost, “that you must come directly. Two more ewes have twinned — that’s what’s the matter, Shepherd Oak.”
ref: 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd:
text: Twinning today is abnormal in all higher primates, and possibly adaptive only in the one species with an obstetrical technology that permits a high rate of survival of twins.
ref: 1992, George Christopher Williams, Natural Selection: Domains, Levels, and Challenges, Oxford University Press on Demand, →ISBN, page 79:
glosses: To give birth to twins.
examples: text: The invert child and her innocent child are together lost children, twinning each other despite their distinctions.
ref: 2009, Kathryn Bond Stockton, The Queer Child, or Growing Sideways in the Twentieth Century, Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 111:
text: I was awake to the horror of our twinning each other in paralysis, and feared that we would soon talk only about the daily, intimate care serious paralysis demands […]
ref: 2017, Christina Crosby, A Body, Undone: Living On After Great Pain, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 111:
glosses: To be, or be like, a twin to (someone else); to match in some way.
examples: text: “I see you got us twinning today.” Byrd kissed Lay quickly. “I wanted you to dress like me today,” he admitted.
ref: 2018, Vivian Blue, Your Heart Is Mine: A Criminal Romance, Sullivan Group Publishing, →ISBN:
text: “We're totally twinning today!” said Zoey. “You sure are,” said Chef Piper. “I whipped up a special dessert for tonight.”
ref: 2019, Lisa Mullarkey, Paisley, ABDO, →ISBN, page 17:
glosses: To be, or be like, a pair of twins (for example, to dress identically); to be paired or suited.
Related terms: sister city