twerkとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源 1

Blend of twitch +‎ jerk. The "sexually-provocative 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.

名詞

twerk (plural twerks)

1. Synonym of twerking (“a sexually-provocative dance, involving the performer thrusting their hips back from a low squatting stance while shaking 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!”

2. (original sense, now dated) 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.

動詞

twerk (third-person singular simple present twerks, present participle twerking, simple past and past participle twerked)

1. To dance in a sexually-provocative way using hip thrusts in a low squatting stance while shaking the buttocks; to take part in twerking.
   • 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.

2. (original sense, now dated) 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.

派生語

語源 2

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

名詞

twerk (plural twerks)

1. (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.

語源 3

Onomatopoeic, possibly coined by Roger Tory Peterson.

名詞

twerk (plural twerks)

1. 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.

外部リンク

• Twerking on Wikipedia.Wikipedia