Wiggle

 Wiggle (pronounced wig-uhl)

(1) To move or go with short, quick, irregular movements from side to side.

(2) To cause to wiggle; move quickly and irregularly from side to side.

(3) A wiggling movement or course.

(4) A wiggly line.

(5) In (mostly northern) US cooking, a form of tuna casserole (usually made with tinned peas or carrots and used also to describe describe creamed tuna on toast; known as a bechamel sauce, especially in the New England states.

1175–1225: From the Middle English wiglen; akin to the Old English wegan (to move), wēg (motion) & wicga (insect) and probably related to the Norwegian vigla (to totter), frequentative of vigga (to rock oneself).  The Dutch and Middle Low German was wiggelen, though to be from the Middle Dutch wigelen (to wiggle) and perhaps the Middle Low German wigelen, frequentative of wiegen (to rock) from wiege (cradle).  The most common idiomatic form is “get a wiggle on”, an informal, usually friendly, suggestion to hurry.  Synonyms include twist, squirm, jerk, wag, writhe, jiggle, wave, wriggle, shimmy, zigzag, waggle, twitch & worm and forms are created as required including the intriguing outwiggled & outwiggling.  Wiggle is a noun & verb, wiggler is a noun, wiggly is an adjective and wiggled & wiggling are verbs; the noun plural is wiggles.  

Donald Trump meets the Wiggles.

Formed in Australia in 1991 as a television musical quartet, The Wiggles were noted for their distinctive and brightly colored skivvies (red, yellow, blue and purple).  Although there were personnel changes (which sometimes attracted controversy), during its first two decades, the membership was exclusively male but in 2012, Emma Watkins (b 1989), previously performing anonymously as Dorothy the Dinosaur, became the Yellow Wiggle and the group dynamics changed, such was her popularity with the audience that almost instantly she dominated, the male members now barely noticed except as her performing backdrop.  This had the advantage of rendering the red, blue and purple wiggles essentially commodities and thus easily replaced without adverse audience reaction but did seem to create a dependence on her which some suggested might might threaten the longer-term survival of the brand.  Those concerns will soon be tested by a raft of changes in the wake of the Yellow Wiggle's announcement in October 2021 she was passing on the skivvy, retiring from the group to pursue a Ph.D in sign language and dance.  For students of branding and marketing that would have been interesting enough but it coincided with the Wiggles deciding to revamp the line-up to encompass a more ethnically diverse range of performers, presumably to entice interest from the parents of more ethnically diverse families, the theory being they too have disposable income to spend on concerts and merchandize.  For all sorts of reasons, the outcome will be interesting.

In the jargon of fashion, a “wiggle dress” is a garment with a hem is narrower than the hips, the cut inducing the wearer to walk in short strides with the legs close together, the sway producing a wiggle of the hips.  A “wiggle” is subtly different from a “wobble” as Lindsay Lohan illustrates.