Twist in a cheeky tale
QUESTION Is twerk a 19thcentury word? TWERKING, a dance involving thrusting movements of the bottom and hips, exploded into the spotlight in 2013 when Miley Cyrus did a risqué version when perfoming with Robin Thicke, of Blurred Lines fame, at the MTV Video Music Awards.
However, twerking was not new. In the Nineties, it was namechecked in songs by Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake.
It was born out of the New Orleans bounce music scene. The 1993 Jubilee All record by DJ Jubilee has the refrain: ‘Twerk baby, twerk baby, twerk, twerk, twerk.’
New Orleans MC Cheeky Blakk was the first to use it in a song title in 1995’s Twerk Something.
However, there is evidence that it is linked to the 19th-century word ‘twirk’ – though this was not used in the bottom-bouncing sense.
It was in use in English as a noun as early as 1820, referring to a twisting or jerking movement or a twitch. The word appears in an 1820 letter from the academic Charles Clairmont to Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein: ‘Really the Germans do allow themselves such twists & twirks of the pen, that it would puzzle any one.’
The noun developed other senses, referring to ‘an ineffectual or worthless person’ ie, a jerk by 1928; and to a twist of fortune in 1948. The sense of a jerking movement ties in with the notorious dance. Harry Hollier, by email. QUESTION What is the story of German town, Nordlingen, built in a meteor crater? BAVARIA’S Nordlingen is a classic German town set in circular medieval walls, with timberframed buildings and red pitched roofs. At the centre is St George’s church, an imposing gothic edifice with a 90m tower.
Nordlingen is inside a meteorite crater 24km in diameter. When the first settlers established the town in 898, they would have had no idea of how the bowl-like depression in the land had formed. They were just taking advantage of the natural shelter and defensive perimeter.
This crater, called the Nordlinger Ries, was formed 14.5million years ago when a mile-wide meteor hit the area. For centuries it was believed it was the result of a volcanic eruption. It wasn’t until the Sixties that geologists Eugene Shoemaker (of Comet ShoemakerLevy 9 fame) and Edward Chao confirmed that the crater was the result of a meteor impact.
The key evidence was the presence of the mineral coesite, formed by the shock pressures caused by a meteorite impact. The impact also created suevite, a rock that contains glass, crystal and tens of thousands of tiny diamonds. As the town was built by the quarrying of suevite by local workers, who embedded sparkling diamonds in the walls.
Mary Evans, by email. QUESTION Why do we turn ‘green with envy’? BEFORE the 17th century, anyone who was pale and sickly looking with a greenish hue to their complexion was not automatically considered to be ill. It was thought they could be displaying ill-humour, fear or inexperience, but very rarely envy.
The use of the expression ‘green with envy’ became popular after 1604 due to William Shakespeare’s famous line in Othello. The villainous Iago says: ‘O beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on.’
It is a metaphor for the greeneyed cat that had a natural tendency to play with, or mock, its victims. Dawn Kent, Cambridge. QUESTION David Bowie’s bestselling album is Let’s Dance. Which other artistes found their greatest success with arguably their worst creation? RUSSIAN composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky hated his 1812 Overture. He wrote of the piece: ‘Very loud and noisy and completely without artistic merit, obviously written without warmth or love.’
The overture’s popularity was a source of deep frustration to this sensitive, serious-minded musician. Today, it’s often played at firework displays. Richard Collier, by email. THOUGH Cher has released some wonderful songs, her biggest single is the 1998 hit Believe, which sold 11million copies.
It’s been argued that Believe was responsible for the destruction of pop music as it introduced AutoTune – the robotic flourish to an otherwise soulful voice.
Producer Mark Taylor was playing with the new computer toy, when he turned the settings to ‘extreme’ and created the ‘Cher Effect’. The record label asked them to remove it, but Cher stood her ground, and the rest is music history. Martin Troughton, by email.