queue
pronunciation
How to pronounce queue in British English:
UK [kjuː]
How to pronounce queue in American English:
US [kjuː]
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- Noun:
- a line of people or vehicles waiting for something
- (information processing) an ordered list of tasks to be performed or messages to be transmitted
- a braid of hair at the back of the head
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- Verb:
- form a queue, form a line, stand in line
Word Origin
- queue
- queue: [16] Etymologically a queue is simply a ‘tail’. That was the meaning of its Latin ancestor cauda, a word of unknown origin which has also given English caudal ‘of a tail’ [17] and, via Italian, coda [18] (literally a ‘tail’-piece). To begin with in English queue (acquired via French) was used only as a technical term in heraldry for a ‘tail’. It was not until the 18th century that metaphorical applications started to appear: to a ‘billiard stick’ (now spelled cue) and a ‘pigtail’. ‘Line of people waiting’ (which has never caught on in American English) emerged in the early 19th century.=> coda
- queue (n.)
- late 15c., "band attached to a letter with seals dangling on the free end," from French queue "a tail," from Old French cue, coe "tail" (12c., also "penis"), from Latin coda (dialectal variant or alternative form of cauda) "tail," of unknown origin. Also in literal use in 16c. English, "tail of a beast," especially in heraldry. The Middle English metaphoric extension to "line of dancers" (c. 1500) led to extended sense of "line of people, etc." (1837). Also used 18c. in sense of "braid of hair hanging down behind" (first attested 1748).
- queue (v.)
- "to stand in a line," 1893, from queue (n.). Earlier "put hair up in a braid" (1777). Related: Queued; queueing. Churchill is said to have coined Queuetopia (1950), to describe Britain under Labour or Socialist rule.
Example
- 1. Somehow the queue must be disposed of .
- 2. At the best spots , advanced surfers informally queue for waves .
- 3. Entrances were closed and passengers forced to queue .
- 4. This depicts the third queue type mentioned in this article .
- 5. N may 2004 , a queue of barges began forming in a windswept corner of the port of antwerp .