twerk

Meanings

Noun

• A fitful movement similar to a twitch or jerk.
• A dance involving sexual movements of the hips and buttocks.
• A puny or insignificant person, generally male; a twerp.
• An abrupt call, such as that made by the California quail.

Verb

• To twitch or jerk.
• To move the body in a sexually suggestive twisting or gyrating fashion, especially as a dance.

Origin

• . In “sexually suggestive movements, especially dance”, particularly popularized since c. 2000 by US hip-hop, and again in 2013 by singer Miley Cyrus.
• , found primarily in the 1930s-era works of Walter Dumaux Edmonds.
• , possibly coined by Roger Tory Peterson.