Twerking (or twerkin) is a dance move that involves a person, usually a woman, shaking her hips in an up-and-down bouncing motion, causing the dancer to shake, "wobble" and "jiggle."[1] According to the Oxford Dictionary Online to twerk is "to dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance." [2] Twerking carries both gendered and racialized connotations.[3]
The word "twerking" is of uncertain origin. Possibilities include a contraction of "footwork", or a portmanteau of twist and jerk.[1]