Origin and history of twisty

late 13c., "flat part of a hinge" (a sense now obsolete), probably from Old English -twist "divided object; fork; rope" (as in mæst-twist "mast rope, stay;" candeltwist "wick"), from Proto-Germanic *twis-, from PIE root *dwo- "two."

Oldest uses suggest an etymological meaning "dividing in two," but later ones have the notion of "combining two into one," hence the sense of "thread or cord composed of two or more fibers" (1550s) might be "made of two strands." Compare the Middle English senses of twin (v.).

The meaning "act or action of turning on an axis, progressive rotary motion" is attested from 1570s. The sense of "beverage consisting of two or more liquors" is attested c. 1700, on the notion of "things spun together."

In reference to a spiral form, disposition, or arrangement from c. 1700; the meaning "thick cord of tobacco" resembling a rope or coil is from 1791. The sense of "loaf or roll of twisted dough baked" is by 1830. The meaning "curled piece of lemon, etc., used to flavor a drink" is recorded from 1958.

As "a wrenching out of place or shape," in reference to a body part, by 1865. Figuratively, "a peculiar bent, a deviation from the usual," by 1811, on the notion of a turning aside. The sense of "unexpected plot development" is from 1941.

The popular rock 'n' roll dance craze is from 1961, so called from the rotary hip motion involved, but twist was used to describe popular dances in 1890s and again in the 1920s. To get one's knickers in a twist "be unduly agitated" is British slang attested by 1971.

Cognates include Old Norse tvistra "to divide, separate," Gothic twis- "in two, asunder," Dutch twist, German zwist "quarrel, discord," though these senses have no equivalent in English. In Middle English twist might also mean "branch of a tree, tendril of a vine, young shoot; place of juncture or forking in the body, the groin."

very common adjective suffix, "full of, covered with, or characterized by" the thing expressed by the noun, Middle English -i, from Old English -ig, from Proto-Germanic *-iga-, from PIE -(i)ko-, adjectival suffix, cognate with elements in Greek -ikos, Latin -icus (see -ic). Germanic cognates include Dutch, Danish, German -ig, Gothic -egs.

It was used from 13c. with verbs (drowsy, clingy), and by 15c. with other adjectives (crispy). Chiefly with monosyllables; with more than two the effect tends to become comedic.

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Variant forms in -y for short, common adjectives (vasty, hugy) helped poets after the loss of grammatically empty but metrically useful -e in late Middle English. Verse-writers adapted to -y forms, often artfully, as in Sackville's "The wide waste places, and the hugy plain." (and the huge plain would have been a metrical balk).

After Coleridge's criticism of it as archaic artifice, poets gave up stilly (Moore probably was last to make it work, with "Oft in the Stilly Night"), paly (which Keats and Coleridge himself had used) and the rest.

Jespersen ("Modern English Grammar," 1954) also lists bleaky (Dryden), bluey, greeny, and other color words, lanky, plumpy, stouty, and the slang rummy. Vasty survives, he writes, only in imitation of Shakespeare; cooly and moisty (Chaucer, hence Spenser) he regards as fully obsolete. But in a few cases he notes (haughty, dusky) they seem to have supplanted shorter forms.