Etymology

tweak

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Today it means: To pinch and pull with a sudden jerk and twist; to twitch. Full definition →

Middle English twikken ← Old English twiccian ← Proto-West Germanic *twekkōn
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*twekkōn“to fasten; clamp; pinch”
  2. Old English · inherited fromtwiccian“to pluck”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromtwikken
  4. English todaytweak

From Middle English twikken, from Old English twiccian (“to pluck”), from Proto-West Germanic *twekkōn (“to fasten; clamp; pinch”). Related to twitch. The drug-related sense may be a blend of twitch and freak.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.