[Ads-l] Twerk the night away

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

A Yahoo news article (from AP) is not scholarship. The OED entry for "twerk" (in the dance sense) reads:
"In early use, associated with ‘bounce’, a style of dance-orientated hip-hop originating in New Orleans, although the dance itself is generally considered to be of West African origin." Also D.J. Jubilee is credited with the first citation of the verb in this sense.

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Z Rice [zrice3714 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2015 6:40 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Twerk the night away

Yet again, the population with whom the dance has its origins is completely
removed from the narrative and the definition. Time and time again, when I
look up a word that has cultural significance to African-Americans, they
are no where to be found in the "official" definitions, nor the
"mainstream" narrative. Years later, they are completely erased from any
discussion of their own cultural artifacts, and "scholars" spend their time
debating the origins of the artifact and feigning ignorance as to its
origins. This is getting old.

The Yahoo "article" itself makes absolutely no mention of the words "black"
or "african-american". It *does* attribute the *dance* to Miley Cyrus. It
attributes "the *word* as a description of *a dance*" to New Orleans. This
is "scholarship"??



On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 2:04 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

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> Subject:      Twerk the night away
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> https://www.yahoo.com/music/s/dictionary-editors-twerking-goes-back-almost-200-years-230322174.html
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> JL
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