'Twerking,' 'hot mess,' and 'meh' are just some of the new words in the Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary is adding 500 new words to its latest edition, but one in particular has a surprising backstory.

Nearly 200 years before Miley Cyrus twerked her way into America's heart and introduced most people to the term, it was spelled "twirk" and referred to a "twitch" or "twisting or jerking movement." By 1901, it became "twerk," and in the new Oxford English Dictionary is defined as dancing "in a sexually provocative manner, using thrusting movements of the bottom and hips while in a low, squatting stance." "We are confident that it is the same origins as the dance," Fiona McPherson, a senior editor of Oxford English Dictionary, told The Guardian. "There has been constant use up into the present day to mean that same thing. I think it's quite spectacular, the early origins for it. We were quite surprised."

In order to qualify for inclusion, a word has to have been in popular use for at least 10 years in novels and newspapers, and other new entries this time around include "hot mess,” “Twitterati," "fo' shizzle," "webisode," and "meh."

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