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'Twerk' Sashays Into Oxford's Online Dictionary, 'Srsly'

Singers Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke during Sunday night's MTV Video Music Awards in New York. Her twerking raised many eyebrows.
Lucas Jackson
/
Reuters/Landov
Singers Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke during Sunday night's MTV Video Music Awards in New York. Her twerking raised many eyebrows.

Miley Cyrus isn't responsible, though this week she certainly did introduce a lot of us old folks to "twerking":

"Twerk" is one of several dozen words or phrases that Oxford Dictionaries Online has added to it website.

Oxford's definition for the verb: "Dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance." The origin? "Probably an alteration of WORK."

Among the other additions:

-- "Dappy ... silly, disorganized, or lacking concentration." As in: "Those Two-Way bloggers sure are dappy."

-- "Derp ... used as a substitute for speech regarded as meaningless or stupid, or to comment on a foolish or stupid action." As in: "Another Two-Way post about Miley Cyrus? Derp."

-- "Squee ... used to express great delight or excitement." As in: "The Two-Way hopes to take Labor Day off. Squee!"

-- "Srsly ... short for SERIOUSLY." As in: "Srsly, Mr. Memmott?"

There's also "badassery," which doesn't show up among the 43 new additions in Oxford's announcement. Time, though, spotlighted it and a search of Oxford's website does reveal that badassery was added this month. The definition:

"Behaviour, characteristics, or actions regarded as intimidatingly tough or impressive."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.