twig

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B2 — Upper-Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a small branch or division of a branch (especially a terminal division); usually applied to branches of the current or preceding year
  2. verb branch out in a twiglike manner
  3. verb understand, usually after some initial difficulty

Etymology

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English twig, twyg, twigge, twygge, from Old English twigg, twicg, from Proto-West Germanic *twiggu (“small twig, shoot”), apparently a diminutive of Proto-West Germanic *twig (“branch, twig”) (whence also Old English twiġ and twiġa), from Proto-Germanic *twīgą, from Proto-Indo-European *dweygʰom, from *dwóh₁. More at two. Cognates Cognate with North Frisian twiich, twiig (“twig”), Saterland Frisian Twiech (“branch, twig”), West Frisian twiich (“twig”), Dutch twijg (“twig”), German Zweig (“branch, twig; section”), German Low German Twieg (“branch, twig”), Luxembourgish Zwäig (“twig”), Yiddish צווײַג (tsvayg, “branch”); also Old Church Slavonic двигъ (dvigŭ, “branch”), Albanian degë (“branch”).

In classic literature

Synonyms

branchlet, sprig

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