twink
English
[edit]
Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English twinken, twynken, from Old English *twincian (“to wink; twinkle”), from Proto-West Germanic *twinkōn, from Proto-Germanic *twinkōną, an augmented form (with formative *-kōną; see English -k) of Proto-Germanic *twint- (“to twinkle”). Cognate with Middle High German zwinken, zwingen, modern German zwinkern (“to wink; twinkle”), Middle Dutch twinc (“a blink”), Middle High German zwinzen, zwinzern (“to blink, blink hard”).
Verb
[edit]twink (third-person singular simple present twinks, present participle twinking, simple past and past participle twinked)
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]twinkle, sparkle
Noun
[edit]twink (plural twinks)
- One or more very small, short bursts of light.
- 1921, Almira Bailey, “The Bay on Sunday Morning” in Vignettes of San Francisco, San Francisco: The San Francisco Journal, p. 18,[1]
- […] chug of the fishermen’s boats, twink of lights in the harbor at night […]
- 1934, D. H. Lawrence, “Smile”, in The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories[2], Hamburg: Albatross, page 101:
- But even as he went, the smile began to come on his face, caught by the tail of the sturdy sister’s black eye, with its everlasting twink.
- 1921, Almira Bailey, “The Bay on Sunday Morning” in Vignettes of San Francisco, San Francisco: The San Francisco Journal, p. 18,[1]
- A very short moment of time.
- Synonyms: instant, twinkling; see also Thesaurus:moment
- c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- […] in a twink she won me to her love.
- 1893, Emily Sarah Holt, chapter 15, in All’s Well[3], London: J.F. Shaw, page 118:
- I’d have known all about it in half a twink.
- 1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 3, in On the Road, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC, part 1:
- […] and once again, in the twink of nothing, I was in another big high cab, all set to go hundreds of miles across the night, and was I happy!
Translations
[edit]a twinkle; a glint
Etymology 2
[edit]Imitative of the sound.
Noun
[edit]twink (plural twinks)
- The chaffinch.
- A sound made by the chaffinch and some other birds.
- 1889, Charles Peters, The Girl's Own Outdoor Book: Containing Practical Help, page 390:
- The chaffinch 'twinks, twinks!' sets up his topknot, and sings his very best to his mate that is sitting near him. Even the hedge sparrow and the wren sing well, although few would give them credit for it.
- 1952, Robert A. Hinde, The Behaviour of the Great Tit (Parus Major) and Some Other [Birds]:
- [page 11:] Integrated movements are accompanied by two calls—the 'twink' which may be uttered in phrases of up to 5 notes, and the 'chich ich ich', similar to the scolding note but less harsh. Often the two calls are combined into a single phrase—'twink twink chich ich ich'. Either may be used at the beginning or end of a movement, or when the birds settle on intermediate […]
- [page 12:] […] A few counts made at the four points were therefore supplemented by recording the number of twinks heard in two or three fixed five minute periods per half hour, in whatever part of the wood I happened to be. The number of twinks per minute obtained on all occasions in each hour of the day for each month […]
- [page 146:] (v) Sometimes the bird flies up and towards the observer, perching near him and scolding with a wide variety of calls—principally 'pit pit churr', 'pit pit chich ich ich', or a very harsh 'chich kik kik kik', mixed with occasional twinks. These calls are accompanied by a jerking movement […]
Translations
[edit]Verb
[edit]twink (third-person singular simple present twinks, present participle twinking, simple past and past participle twinked)
Etymology 3
[edit]From twinkie. More at 
Twink § Etymology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Noun
[edit]twink (plural twinks)
- (gay slang) A young, attractive, slim man, usually having little body hair.
- 1978, Armistead Maupin, “Full moon in Seacliff”, in Tales of the City[4], New York: Ballantine, pages 253–254:
- “Where are the twinks anyway? They usually have the decency to provide one or two decorative twinks… Jesus, who needs to waste a night staring at these tired old Gucci queens.”
- 2006, Dennis D. Waskul, Phillip Vannini, Body/Embodiment: Symbolic Interaction and the Sociology of the Body, page 135:
- […] the narrow gay ideal of a slim or waiflike male body, as displayed by the young "twink".
- (derogatory, slang) A weak or effeminate man, whether gay or not.
- Synonyms: pretty boy, fairy; see also Thesaurus:effeminate man
- 2023 December 14, Gina Cherelus, “The Trans Comic Looking for Love ‘at the End of the World’”, in The New York Times[5], →ISSN, archived from the original on 22 March 2024:
- “I thought testosterone would turn me into a man, but it turned me into a twink,” Tom, who is nonbinary, revealed to a cackling West Village audience last week at the Greenwich House Theater in Manhattan.
- (US military slang, possibly dated) A new recruit.
- 1983, Peter Louis Goldman, Tony Fuller, Charlie Company: What Vietnam Did to Us, page 32:
- But most of the lifers had never seen 'Nam and most of the twinks—the new recruits—had little idea of where they were going […] [page 61:] twinks waiting to be assigned to their units […] [page 94:] loaded aboard a chopper with the day's resupply of twinks to join Charlie Company […]
- 1988, Paul West, The Place in Flowers where Pollen Rests, page 370:
- He was a twink—a recruit—no longer, but a sophomore at least, and, since this was war's campus, accelerating you no end, maybe a junior already.
- 1996, David Jauss, Black Maps:
- [page 19:] " […] twink. "That's right. Since he's a new recruit, I thought you could teach him some of the finer points of shit-burning. Now chop chop," Reynolds said, then turned and left. "You heard the man," the guard said, then […] It was bad enough to put him in the stockade, but to treat him like that twink Konieczny . . . He'd spent ten months in-country—tne fucking months—and he'd walked point for the first three. […] [page 26:] And he wasn't even a twink. He'd been in the bush long enough to […]
- (online gaming, mildly derogatory) A lower-level character in a roleplaying game (MMO) who is artificially overgeared or overpowered, due to being given advanced equipment or resources via a higher-level character controlled by the same player. [from late 1990s]
- 2015, Richard A. Bartle, MMOs from the Inside Out, page 154:
- Bind-on-account was an innovation that allowed players to transfer goods to their own twinks, but not to those of other players.
- 2016, Timothy Rowlands, Video Game Worlds: Working at Play in the Culture of EverQuest, page 71:
- Characters who were obvious twinks, possessing equipment well beyond their means, were subject to public criticism.
- (online gaming, derogatory, dated) A player in a multi-user dungeon (MUD) who engages in abusive min-maxing behaviour and exploits or took advantage of other players for personal gain. [1980s and 1990s]
- 1997, Flower of the Night, “Looking for a mud”, in rec.games.mud.diku (Usenet):
- I certainly don't consider myself a twink; however it seems that anyone who doesn't agree with another's point of view is automatically labelled as such.
- 1997, Gov't Cheeze, “[AD/REQUEST] Builders and Players (twinks need not apply)”, in rec.games.mud.admin (Usenet):
- You will not find any stock. You will not find any easy mobs. You will not find any +100 dam 'big swords of I win'. You will not find twink mudders. You will not hear about how Jim the Kewl dOOd scored last night at his sister's birthday party. You will not find bots.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]gay slang: young, attractive, slim man
|
weak or effeminate man
artificially overgeared or overpowered low-level character
Verb
[edit]twink (third-person singular simple present twinks, present participle twinking, simple past and past participle twinked)
- (intransitive, gaming, derogatory) To engage in obnoxious or abusive behaviour in a multi-user dungeon or other roleplaying game, for example by griefing or by equipping a low-level character with advanced equipment from another player.
- 2004, Richard A. Bartle, Designing Virtual Worlds, page 429:
- Twinking happens in virtual worlds with PD, but not to the same extent.
- 2016, Timothy Rowlands, Video Game Worlds: Working at Play in the Culture of EverQuest:
- However, the taboo surrounding twinking had all but disappeared by the time I started playing again in 2004.
- 2018, Adam Drake, Shadow For Hire Books 1-4:
- He used real money to buy large amounts of in-game gold then 'twinked' his new character with the best gear, upgrading as his level rapidly increased.
- 2020, Alex Maven, ForeverQuest: Online Battle Arena:
- That the twinked little brat doesn't want to mention that the only reason she won a single game was that daddy cut her a fat check.
Etymology 4
[edit]Genericized trademark of Twink, a brand of correction fluid in New Zealand.
Noun
[edit]twink (uncountable)
Anagrams
[edit]Portuguese
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Unadapted borrowing from English twink.
Pronunciation
[edit]
Noun
[edit]twink m (plural twinks)
Turkish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Unadapted borrowing from English twink.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]twink (definite accusative twinki, plural twinkler)
- (LGBTQ slang) twink (a young attractive man)
- 2021 October 11, @alpussi, Twitter[6] (post):
- dolmusta bi twink bana asik oldu ve bakisabilmek icin birine yer verdi
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 2023 October 8, @lavuqueovic, X[7] (post):
- mert ibbinasıyla ben 2 twink sabahtan beri şu şekil takılıyoruz aq
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 2025 August 14, @pomuyomi, X[8] (post):
- acaba bi twink olsam omar rudberg mi olurdum troye sivan mı
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Declension
[edit]Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɪŋk
- Rhymes:English/ɪŋk/1 syllable
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English dialectal terms
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English onomatopoeias
- English gay slang
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- English slang
- American English
- en:Military
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- en:Video games
- English intransitive verbs
- en:Gaming
- English genericized trademarks
- English uncountable nouns
- New Zealand English
- en:People
- en:Male people
- en:True finches
- Portuguese terms borrowed from English
- Portuguese unadapted borrowings from English
- Portuguese terms derived from English
- Portuguese 2-syllable words
- Portuguese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Portuguese 1-syllable words
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese countable nouns
- Portuguese terms spelled with K
- Portuguese terms spelled with W
- Portuguese masculine nouns
- Portuguese LGBTQ slang
- Turkish terms borrowed from English
- Turkish unadapted borrowings from English
- Turkish terms derived from English
- Turkish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Turkish lemmas
- Turkish nouns
- Turkish terms spelled with W
- Turkish LGBTQ slang
- Turkish terms with quotations