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Blend of twitch + jerk. The "sexually suggestive movements, especially dance" sense was particularly popularized since c. 2000 by hip-hop from the Unites States of America, and again in 2013 by singer Miley Cyrus.
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.
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!”
Verb
twerk (third-person singular simple presenttwerks, present participletwerking, simple past and past participletwerked)
[…] 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.
(informal) To move the body in a sexually suggestive twisting or gyrating fashion, especially as a dance.
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.
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.
Derived terms
terms derived from twerk (sexually-suggestive dance)
