You’re having a pretty good week, aren’t you?
First, Miley Cyrus and her gyrations at the MTV VMAs.
And now this.
The Oxford dictionaries have picked you as an official word. An honest-to-goodness word.
Twerk, verb.
Look at you!
But you’re not the only one. The online version of that well-respected dictionary does a quarterly update of “current English,” adding terms its editors say have been absorbed by popular culture.
Joining you today are fauxhawk (you know, that David Beckham haircut), phablet (phone+tablet) and, of course, selfie.
Yes, srsly.
In this age of text messaging, you can bet that any word that can be shortened will soon become a perfectly acceptable substitute for that word..
That’s why, we now have grats, instead of congrats.
Apols, instead of apologies.
And vom, instead of vomit.
Oh chill out, word nerds. English is a living breathing thing and words will evolve.
Get with the program.
But what surprised us is that the dictionary editors say ‘twerk’ has been around for 20 years.
Apparently, it’s started as a variation of ‘work’ — as in, ‘Work it girl.’
Twenty years? Why, that’s how long Miley’s been in this world.
Hmm.
