twig
pronunciation
How to pronounce twig in British English:
UK [twɪɡ]
How to pronounce twig in American English:
US [twɪɡ]
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- Noun:
- small branch or division of a branch; usually applied to branches of the current or preceding year
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- Verb:
- branch out in a twiglike manner
- understand, usually after some initial difficulty
Word Origin
- twig
- twig: English has two separate words twig. The older, ‘small branch’ [OE], which has relatives in German zweig and Dutch tijg, appears to have been formed from the Germanic base *twi- ‘two’, and so etymologically it presumably denotes a ‘forked branch’. The origins of twig ‘catch on, understand’ [18] are uncertain. It may be the same word as the contemporary but now defunct twig ‘pull’. This was presumably related to tweak [17] and twitch [12], which go back to a prehistoric Germanic base *twik-.=> tweak, twitch, two
- twig (n.)
- Old English twig "twig, branch, shoot, small tree," from Proto-Germanic *twigga "a fork" (cognates: Middle Dutch twijch, Dutch twijg, Old High German zwig, German Zweig "branch, twig"), from PIE *dwi-ko-, from *dwo- "two" (see two). Compare Old English twisel "fork, point of division."
Example
- 1. Studencice , slovenia : a dragonfly sits on a twig
- 2. Some would fray one end of the twig so that it could penetrate between the teeth more effectively .
- 3. A bird fiies over stopping on a twig and looking the paddy field which will ripe into the distance .
- 4. So the copernicus commissioned a special poll to try and twig why these bright young things don 't visit , and what could be done in order to draw them in .
- 5. Let the light fall gently , and the clouds show an inner vest of the first green leaf . Let the sparrow perch on the twig and shake the raindrop hanging to the twig 's elbow ......