twig

English

Etymology 1

Old English twigge, from Proto-Germanic *twīgan (compare West Frisian twiich, Dutch twijg, German Zweig), from Proto-Indo-European *dwigha (compare Old Church Slavonic dvigŭ 'branch', Albanian degë 'id.'), from *dwó 'two'. More at two.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪɡ

Noun

Wikipedia twig (plural twigs)

1. A small thin branch of a tree or bush.

   They used twigs and leaves as a base to start the fire.

Translations

a small thin branch

Czech: větvička (cs) f. Dutch: twijg (nl) Finnish: varpu (fi) French: brindille (fr) f. German: Zweig (de) m. Hungarian: gally (hu) Icelandic: kvistur (is) m. Italian: ramoscello (it) m.

Japanese: 小枝 (ja) (koeda) Middle English: twygge Norwegian: kvist (no) m. Russian: веточка (ru) f. Scottish Gaelic: bioran m., geug f., meanglan m., ògan m., òganach m., slat m., sprios m. Spanish: ramita (es) f., ramilla (es) f. Swedish: kvist (sv) c.

Derived terms

• off one's twig

Etymology 2

From Irish and Scots Gaelic tuig, "to understand"

Verb

twig (third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)

1. (colloquial, regional) To realise something; to 'catch on'.

   He hasn't 'twigged' that we're planning a surprise party for him.

Translations

to realise something

French: entraver (fr), capter (fr) German: mitbekommen, checken Japanese: 気づく (ja) (kizuku)

Russian: догадаться (ru), смекнуть (ru) Scottish Gaelic: tuig