What is a Nowerk Word™?

Question

_{This is in the spirit of the What is a Word™/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.}

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If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Nowerk Word™.

Use the examples below to find the rule.

Nowerk Words™	Not Nowerk Words™
COG	PRONG
SNUG	TIGHT
MAELSTROM	WHIRLPOOL
COZY	COMFORTABLE
SPRY	AGILE
HUG	EMBRACE
LUG	HAUL
NUDGE	PROD
FLOUNDER	FLAIL
RIG	APPARATUS

CSV Version:

Nowerk Words™,Not Nowerk Words™
COG,PRONG
SNUG,TIGHT
MAELSTROM,WHIRLPOOL
COZY,COMFORTABLE
SPRY,AGILE
HUG,EMBRACE
LUG,HAUL
NUDGE,PROD
FLOUNDER,FLAIL
RIG,APPARATUS

These are not the only examples of Nowerk Words™, a few more exist.

An Enigmatic Hint:

Counter Counter Counter

The solution to the enigmatic hint:

The hint above is supposed to mean center counter, a chess opening.

Answer 1

A Nowerk Word™ is

a word of Scandinavian origin, as seen here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Scandinavian_origin

The hint was very helpful, in that

another name for the Center Counter chess opening is the Scandinavian Defense. Maelstrom was the clear standout in the list, and a little googling came up with the Scandinavian link. Pretty interesting commonality, nice puzz!