If you think twerking began when Miley Cyrus started gyrating to a bewildered audience during her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2013, think again.
The word "twerk" actually began way before you or your mother or even your grandmother was born. While we think twerking is an invention of the 21st century mind, the word was actually being used as far back as the first half of the nineteenth century, when Karl Marx was formulating his Communist Manifesto and our ancestors were debating over landlords and peasants.
Lexicographers for the Oxford English Dictionary, considered by many as the most complete record of the English language, were researching the origins of the word "twerk" when they discovered that the first use of the word was in 1820. At the time, it was a noun spelled as "twirk" and is positively believed to be a combination of the words twitch or twist and jerk.
In 1848, "twirk" began being used as a verb, but it was only at the turn of the century, in 1901, that the spelling "twerk" was used. Twerking as a dance move has its roots in the 1990s "bounce" movement in the New Orleans music scene.
The Oxford English Dictionary has now added the word "twerk" and its derivatives as an official part of the English language. The word's official definition is: "To dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner, user thrusting movements of the bottom and hips while in a low squatting stance."
Senior editor Fiona McPherson says is highly likely that the word "twerk" as it is used in 2015 and "twirk" in 1820 have very similar meanings.
"There has been constant use up into the present day to mean that same thing," she says. "I think it's quite spectacular, the early origins for it. We were quite surprised."
Here's another word you didn't know was older than you thought it was. The Oxford English Dictionary has officially acknowledged "meh" as a word. And while you think the three-letter word used to show that you're not interested is a product of the texting generation, it was actually first used in 1992 and popularized in The Simpsons.
A few more words that have officially received their stamp of acceptance into the English language are the following:
Cisgender - a person whose personal identity matches their gender at birth
E-cigarette - device containing nicotine-based liquid or other substance to simulate the experience of smoking
FLOTUS - First Lady Of The United States
Fo'shizzle - for sure; definitely
Sext - send a sexually suggestive or explicit message via SMS
Twitterati - frequent Twitter users
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