Werked

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Labored at a task or operated properly in the past ; slang for showing off a performance with bold confidence and style
2. Carried out labor or functioned as intended previously ; informal term for strutting through an act with dazzling flair
3. Toiled at something or ran smoothly in an earlier time ; colloquial praise for pulling off a moment with fierce, stylish swagger

Etymology: "Werked" is the past tense and past participle of "werk", a respelling of "work" that picked up a new life in LGBT slang. The spelling is far older than the slang, though: "werk" and "werken" were Middle English forms, the latter a variant of "worchen", the ancestor of the modern verb "work". So the spelling that now looks playful was once simply the ordinary way of writing the word. The modern slang sense is a separate, much more recent development that is best understood as an orthographic variant. Its meaning has little to do with the older forms, and it is not a continuation of Middle English usage. Readers meeting "werked" today are most likely seeing the slang, while the historical spelling belongs to a long-obsolete vocabulary that predates the modern verb's standard form.