‘Twerk’ among new dictionary entries

“Twerk”, the word describing the dance popularised by Miley Cyrus, can be traced back to as early as 1820, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

The word is one of 500 new entries, including “twitterati” (describing users of the social media service), and “fo’ shizzle” (meaning “for sure”), added to the dictionary.

The Oxford English Dictionary records the meaning and development of the English language. For a word to qualify, it must have been in popular use for at least 10 years in both novels and newspapers.