User:Martin McManus/sandbox

dwindle-twitching
Dwindle-twitching is an old Sussex dialect term meaning to while away the hours in reverie, to daydream laziliy or be lost in thought.

It has a poetic element based in the context of time, or the day dwindling away whilst remaining pre-occupied with another subject.

Dwindle comes from an Olde English derivative of the Danish word tvine - to pine away.

Twitch is a colloquial word for grass & is reflective of the rural history of the Sussex area whereas twitching - to lie in the grass, has become a more widespread term for bird-watching.

Examples of the usage are mainly oral & have been passed down in folk-songs & recitations still expounded by the likes of the famous troubadours, the Copper Family of Rottingdean, [{| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Family}], who regularly perform historical sets on the local scene.