Tweak

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Dr. Goodword
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Tweak

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:25 pm

• tweak •


Pronunciation: tweek • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. To pinch, jerk, nip or twist. 2. To make tiny adjustments, fine-tune. 3. (North American) To tease in a small way, to josh, make fun of. 4. (British) To jerk, pull sharply. 5. To abuse methamphetamines.

Notes: Today's word is authentically English (not borrowed), one that always refers to a small if not tiny action. It brings along with it two adjectives, one active, tweaky "that tweaks or jerks", and one passive, tweakable "that can be finely tuned". Otherwise, the present participle serves as an active noun and adjective, tweaking.

In Play: The basic sense of tweak is "pinch" or "twist": "Giovanni was raised thinking that a tweak on the wife's behind was as good as a kiss." However, it is probably used more often today in the sense of "make fine adjustments": "We just need to tweak the design of our electric fork a bit and it will be as good as the electric knife."

Word History: Today's Good Word probably descended from Old English twiccian, source also of twitch, and cousin to German zwicken "pinch, tweak" and Dutch twikken "to twitch". Nasalized, today's word could share its family with twinge, though the -GE this word ends on would require a bit of explanation. All these words seem to be limited to Germanic languages, probably from Proto-Germanic twikjon. How it came to be in Proto-Germanic is anyone's guess. (Thanks to Jeremy Busch for including this little Good Word in his comment to the post about our server working.)
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