牛津英语在线字典在最新公布的季度新词词库中收录了表示性感“电臀舞”的“twerking”一词。字典编纂方表示，在过去12个月当中，美国流行歌手麦莉•赛勒斯凭借“电臀舞”顺利蹿升至排行榜首位，同时也让这个词被更多人熟知。他们指出，虽然很多读者第一次知道这个词是通过麦莉•赛勒斯在本届MTV颁奖典礼上的性感热舞，但这个词其实已经存在了20年之久。关于这个词的起源有许多说法，但因为这个词最先是在口语中产生的，所以无法确定其真正的起源，最有可能是“twist”或“twitch”与“work”一词融合后的变形。此次更新的词库中还收录了“selfie”（自拍）、“digital detox”（数字戒毒期），以及“Bitcoin”（比特币）。

Singer Miley Cyrus performs "We Can't Stop" during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards in New York August 25, 2013.[Photo/Agencies]

Twerking, the rump-busting up-and-down dance move long beloved on America's hip-hop scene, has officially gone mainstream. It's got the English dictionary entry to prove it.

Britain's Oxford Dictionaries said the rapid-fire gyrations employed by US pop starlet Miley Cyrus to bounce her way to the top of the charts had become increasingly visible in the past 12 months and would be added to its publications under the entry: "Twerk, verb."

Although Cyrus's eye-popping moves at Monday's MTV Video Music Awards may have been many viewers' first introduction to the practice, Oxford Dictionaries' Katherine Connor Martin said "twerking" was some two decades old.

"There are many theories about the origin of this word, and since it arose in oral use, we may never know the answer for sure," Martin said. "We think the most likely theory is that it is an alteration of work, because that word has a history of being used in similar ways, with dancers being encouraged to 'work it.' The 't' could be a result of blending with another word such as twist or twitch."

"Twerk" will be added to the dictionary as part of its quarterly update, which includes words such as "selfie," the word typically used to describe pouty smartphone self-portraits, "digital detox" for time spent away from Facebook and Twitter, and "Bitcoin," for the nationless electronic currency whose gyrations have also caught the world's eye.

Oxford Dictionaries is responsible for a range of reference works, including Oxford Dictionaries Online, which focuses on modern usage, and the historically-focused Oxford English Dictionary, which probably won't be adding "twerk" to its venerable pages any time soon.

The definition: "Twerk, v.: dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance."

(Agencies)

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（中国日报网英语点津 实习生 马国佳，编辑 Helen ）