The word "twerk" is no longer just a slang term used to describe the dance craze that Miley Cyrus has help propel into mainstream pop culture. Now, thanks to Oxford Dictionaries Online (ODO), it's a legitimate word that has been added to the English language.
Quartz reports that ODO is including "twerk" in its latest update of words and phrases that have recently come into general use. "Twerk," however, will not be added in the Oxford University Press' venerable Oxford English Dictionary...yet.
The ODO defines "twerk" as a verb meaning to "dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance." In essence, that's a simple way to describe Cyrus' over-the-top raunchy VMAs performance.
After learning the dance while shooting a film in New Orleans, Cyrus first helped popularize twerking in March when she posted a YouTube video of her twerking in a unicorn costume that went viral.
The former Disney star wasn't the first person to twerk, though, as a report in the Associated Press dates the dance as far as 20 years back while Beyonce used the phrase "twerk it" in her 2006 hit "Check On It."
Along with "twerk," ODO has also added modern day words including "phablet," "selfie," "emoji," "TL;DR," and "srsly" to its website on Wednesday.
According to Christian Purdy, the director of publicity for the Oxford University Press-USA, "The dictionary content in ODO focuses on current English and includes modern meanings and uses of words," he told ABC News. "It's not telling you what the language should be. It's all about how [words] are used."
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