Originally Posted by https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/899861-Origin-of-Twink

'Twink' began use in things like D&D. Essentially snobby, usually young male players who wanted to make overpowered characters and didn't care about the actual roleplaying aspects of the game in question. At the time 'twink' was a much more common derogatory term. In the long run you were in fact calling them 'gay' in a derogatory way. Slightly more acceptable because even the gay community thought of it as mostly an insult.

Ultimately you can trace that back to the origin of that, which is the ever popular twinkie. Draw what conclusions you will about why a young blonde pretty boy would draw comparison to twinkies. That would be a little blue for these forums.

Originally Posted by https://www.etymonline.com/word/twink

c. 1400, in phrase in a twynk of oon eye "suddenly, almost instantaneously," from twink (v.) "to wink," probably from Old English twincan (see twinkle (v.)). Meaning "a twinkle" is from 1830. Meaning "young sexually attractive person" is recorded from 1963, probably from Twinkie; but compare 1920s-30s British homosexual slang twank in a similar sense.

Originally Posted by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking

Etymology
There are several possible etymologies for the word. It may not have been derived from a single source, instead evolving from multiple convergent usages. Its exact origin is unclear.

The gay-slang usage of "twink" has been suggested as a likely origin.[1] One of the connotations of this usage is "a young/inexperienced person who can outfit himself fashionably because of financial benefits from an older/experienced sugar daddy." This parallels MMORPGs, where in-game money is a strong limiting factor in the virtual economy and gear is usually in the form of clothing and jewelry.

The word "twink" appeared in the Ultima Online: Renaissance playguide in the glossary of terms (copyrighted in 2000). It was asserted to have a meaning similar to its current one, but also included powerlevelling.

On the MUD Sojourn, which several creators of EverQuest played, "twink" was alternately used to refer to powerleveling and metagaming. As MUDs date to 1978, this use of the term may possibly predate later uses.

The term twink and twinking predated MMOs and was prevalent in many MUDs. The term came from flags on much of the high end gear that cause gear to be displayed as (twinkling) <gear name>. It was not an alternate name for powerleveling, but could be used as a method of powerleveling.

Originally Posted by Rang (Post 2930499)

Was twink used in UO?

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

The word "twink" appeared in the Ultima Online: Renaissance playguide in the glossary of terms (copyrighted in 2000). It was asserted to have a meaning similar to its current one, but also included powerlevelling.