Miley Cyrus redefines naughty and haughty
Hard to say exactly that US pop singer Miley Cyrus had in mind with her raunchy dancing at the MTV Video Music Awards last Sunday, but surely she didn't expect to goose along the evolution of the English language.
Her friend Kelly Osbourne’s English was clear enough in one of the billion or so tweets generated by the show: “Put your [fornicating] tongue in your mouth!” she told Miley. Then came the Breaking News that the Oxford English Dictionary had certified the word “twerking” as “n. Raunchy dancing with your [fornicating] tongue hanging out of your mouth” or something like that.
However, Oxford University Press quickly clarified that the Oxford Dictionary Online had accepted the word, not the Oxford English Dictionary. The online resource goes for “current English and modern meanings”, it explained, whereas the paper-and-ink edition “is a historical … record of all the core words and meanings in English over more than 1,000 years.
“Words are never removed from the OED,” it said as haughtily as possible, implying that the term “twerking” will likely last as long as Miley Cyrus’ career, something like “groovy” (which is still in the dictionary, but only for a laugh).
The clarification, however, didn’t prevent some damage being done to “anglophonics” (if that’s a word), with Thai-language newspapers backed up by the New York Times in asserting “Oxford dictionary learns how to ‘twerk’”, without distinguishing between the online and printed editions.
For the historical record, the Associated Press, America’s ABC News, Forbes and Time were among the many media outlets that did spot the difference.
More tongues seen
The media – both new (social) and traditional (boring) – also got tripped up amid all the twerking by publishing a photo of actor Will Smith and his family in the MTV Awards audience with mouths agape while watching Miley perform. In fact they weren’t watching Miley at all at the moment. It was Lady Gaga’s turn onstage that inspired their seemingly shocked looks.
More than five million people watched a YouTube video entitled “Will Smith and family react to Miley Cyrus twerking”. It certainly seemed to make sense with Miley up there rubbing her bottom against a male singer’s trousers as naughtily as possible.
Now it was MTV’s turn to issue a clarification. The unfortunate Smiths were actually watching Lady Gaga dancing in a bikini made out of seashells (quite alarming in itself) but they weren’t aghast at all. In fact they applauded heartily at the end, especially Will and his son.
Regardless, it’s Miley we can thank for the fact that “twerking” is for the moment accepted as perfectly good English and that there’s now an iconic Smith Family Portrait that will forever be associated with her God-given talent for titillation. For, even after all the clarifications, a reader of the Daily Mail Online suggested that Miley use the picture of the Smiths on an album cover.
