queer
pronunciation
How to pronounce queer in British English:
UK [kwɪə(r)]
How to pronounce queer in American English:
US [kwɪr]
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- Noun:
- offensive terms for an openly homosexual man
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- Verb:
- hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of
- put in a dangerous, disadvantageous, or difficult position
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- Adjective:
- beyond or deviating from the usual or expected
- not as expected
- homosexual or arousing homosexual desires
Word Origin
- queer
- queer: [16] Queer was probably borrowed from German quer ‘across, oblique’, hence ‘perverse’. This went back to a prehistoric Indo- European *twerk-, which also produced English thwart and Latin torquēre ‘twist’ (source of English torch, torture, etc).=> thwart, torch, torment, tort, torture
- queer (adj.)
- c. 1500, "strange, peculiar, eccentric," from Scottish, perhaps from Low German (Brunswick dialect) queer "oblique, off-center," related to German quer "oblique, perverse, odd," from Old High German twerh "oblique," from PIE root *terkw- "to turn, twist, wind" (see thwart (adv.)). Sense of "homosexual" first recorded 1922; the noun in this sense is 1935, from the adjective. Related: Queerly. Queer studies as an academic discipline attested from 1994.
- queer (v.)
- "to spoil, ruin," 1812, from queer (adj.). Related: Queered; queering. Earlier it meant "to puzzle, ridicule, cheat" (1790). To queer the pitch (1846) is in reference to the patter of an itinerant tradesman or showman (see pitch (n.1)). These wanderers, and those who are still seen occasionally in the back streets of the metropolis, are said to 'go a-pitching ;' the spot they select for their performance is their 'pitch,' and any interruption of their feats, such as an accident, or the interference of a policeman, is said to 'queer the pitch,'--in other words, to spoil it. [Thomas Frost, "Circus Life and Circus Celebrities," London, 1875]
Example
- 1. They all laughed at her queer idea .
- 2. But he gave her " a queer sort of moth-and-flame feeling " , so she followed .
- 3. Think too hard about it , and mathematics starts to seem like a mighty queer business .
- 4. Fortunatelyit was early , and they went through back streets , so few people sawthem , and no one laughed at the queer party .
- 5. It is indeed queer that the single biggest topic can bind young people together is nostalgia , as if young people are reminiscent of some kind of long-lost innocence .