Dear internet: THIS is what the word 'twink' really means

muscular arms, tattoos, and facial hair. you guys don’t know what twink means at all https://t.co/WApJsYLSln

— ashton ray (@ashtxnray) February 28, 2024

A recent X (formerly Twitter) post showing a man with a mustache and buff arms that said “rip oscar wilde you would have loved twinks like this” is sparking some conversation online. When did our community forget what a twink is?

One user reposted the image with the caption “muscular arms, tattoos, and facial hair. You guys don’t know what twink means at all.”

Yall don’t know what trade is, yall don’t know what twinks are, it’s getting silly now https://t.co/1OVQqu2iUF

— Lilbbyphat ✨ (@bimbosumit) February 29, 2024

Another user added: “Yall don’t know what trade is, yall don’t know what twinks are, it’s getting silly now.” It is indeed.

While there’s no universally agreed-upon origin for the word’s use in gay communities, there is a general consensus when it comes to the definition.

Some think the word comes from the name of Hostess' iconic snack cake Twinkie, while others say it comes from “Twinkle Toes,” or even from the older British term “twank,” which means “a man willing and ready to become any dominant man’s partner,” according to The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English.

According to Etymology.com, the word twink meaning “young sexually attractive person” was first recorded in 1963, and it offers both Twinkie and twank as possibilities of origin.

The first definition of twink on Urban Dictionary comes from 2004, when a user wrote that a twink is “an attractive, boyish-looking, young gay man. The stereotypical twink is 18-22, slender with little or no body hair, often blonde, dresses in club wear even at 10:00 AM, and is not particularly intelligent. A twink is the gay answer to the blonde bimbo cheerleader.”

This entry gives two possible origins for the term. It offers the backronym “Teenage, White, Into No Kink,” as one option, and gives a cheeky connection to the snake cake, saying it’s “a tasty, cream-filled snack with no nutritional value” and pointing out that “the phallic shape of the ‘TWINKIE’ snack cake should not escape the reader’s attention.”

Them also points out that there have always been terms in the gay community for young, hairless, attractive men. According to that site, twinks were previously called “mollies” in England and “knabe” in Germany.

But the things that tie all these definitions together include being gay, being thin, young-looking, little to no body hair and no facial hair, and attractive. So NO, 27-year-old with a ’70s mustache and buff arms full of the tattoos he’s gotten over his adult life is, you guessed it, NOT a twink...