Oxford English Dictionary: 'Twerk' has been around a long time

OXFORD, England, June 24 (UPI) -- Oxford English Dictionary announced Thursday about 500 new words were added to the tome, some of which have been around a lot longer than previously thought.

One might expect that the word "twerk" has perhaps only been around since Miley Cyrus stunned the world with her version at the 2013 MTV Music Awards, or maybe a few years earlier.

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) researchers, though, found a version of the word dates back to 1820 when "twirk," a noun, was used to describe a "twisting or jerking movement." The word has been added to the June quarterly OED update.

"We are confident that it is the same origins as the dance," Fiona McPherson, a senior editor of Oxford English Dictionary, told The Guardian. "There has been constant use up into the present day to mean that same thing. I think it's quite spectacular, the early origins for it. We were quite surprised."

The OED now officially defines "twerk" as "to dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner, using thrusting movements of the bottom and hips while in a low, squatting stance."

Unique among dictionaries, the massive OED -- the entire print dictionary takes up some 20 volumes -- includes all uses of a word and examples from when a word first entered the English language.

So, for example, new OED entry, "sext" has commonly referred to a suggestive image or message sent via mobile phone since 2001. But dating back to the 1500s, the word could have described a certain Christian worship ritual.

Other entries this quarter include autotune, fo' shizzle, webisode, e-cigarette, voluntourism, ecotown and backronym. "Stanky" describes something that has a strong smell, "Twitterati" are Twitter users and a "freegan" is someone who eats only discarded food usually for environmental reasons.