Do you like to twankle?
You might be wondering what twankling involves, and whether you go do it without realising. Here are some possible definitions. Can be guess which one is the real one?
- twankle = to shine with a bright, blinding light
- twankle = to play idly on a musical instrument
- twankle = to dance in a wild and uncoordinated way
According to Wiktionary, twankle means “to twang with the fingers on a music instrument”. Another definition is “to play idly on a musical instrument”.
So, if you have a musical instrument lying around, and who doesn’t*, you may have twankled on it without knowing. Although maybe you would say that you were jamming, noodling, improvising, ad-libbing or composing. Do you have any other words for this?
*As I write this, I currently have several instruments lying around in easy reach – a cavaquinho, ocarinas, tin whistles, recorders, a roll-up piano, a melodica, a guitar, a bodhrán and a ukulele – and I have been known to twankle on them. Until I learnt this word though, I noodled on them. Other instruments are available elsewhere in my house.
In fact, here’s a tune called The Wagtail that emerged from some twankling / noodling on the cavaquinho a few weeks ago:
I will make a better recording soon, and may even write out the dots as well.
It seems odd, but perhaps not too much so, that twankle = to shine with a bright, blinding light, but twinkle = shine with a gleam that varies repeatedly between bright and faint.
May we all shine our lights, whether bright, faint, strummed, whistled or sung 🙂