queer
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kwɪə/
ipa: /kwɪɹ/
ipa: /kwəɹ/
note: Indic
ipa: /kwɪr/
rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
Forms: form: queers
form: qwer
Etymology: Attested since about 1510, at first in Scots. Usually taken to be from Middle Low German (Brunswick dialect) queer (“oblique, off-center”) or the related German quer (“diagonal”), from Old Saxon thwerh, from Proto-West Germanic *þwerh, from Proto-Germanic *þwerhaz, from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to turn, twist, wind”); compare Latin torqueō, and see more at thwart. The OED argues against this due to the semantic differences and the date at which the word appears in Scots.
Began to be used to describe gay people in the late 1800s, see usage notes for more.
Senses: examples: text: Now that the first flush of this catastrophe and grief is passed, I write to tell you that it is a judgement on the whole lot of you. Montgomerys, The Snob Queers like [the Earl of] Rosebery & certainly Christian hypocrite [William Ewart] Gladstone [...]
ref: 1894 November 1, John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, “[Letter from Queensbury to Alfred Montgomery, 1 Nov 1894, in the aftermath of the trial of Oscar Wilde]”, in Michael S. Foldy, editor, The Trials of Oscar Wilde: Deviance, Morality, and Late-Victorian Society, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, published 1997, page 22:
text: [...] fourteen young men were invited [...] with the premise that they would have the opportunity of meeting some of the prominent 'queers,' [...] and the further attraction that some 'chickens' as the new recruits in the vice are called, would be available.
ref: 1914 November, Eugene Fisher, “Transmittal to the Sacramento Bee [a.k.a Shakespeare Transmittal]”, in Sharon R. Ullman, editor, Sex Seen: The Emergence of Modern Sexuality in America, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, published 1998, →ISBN, page 64:
text: It is the queers themselves whose answers to "What to do about it [homosexuality]" are most important. They, rather than the normals, cops, parents, or doctors are the persons most vitally concerned.
ref: 1940 January-June, Allen Bernstein, “What to do about it: Queers”, in Millions of Queers (Our Homo America), [Unpublished MS of the United States National Library of Medicine], →OCLC, page 132:
text: Any blow against the queer is really a blow struck against a part of ourselves which we cannot accept or understand. I think in every case it would be correct to say that someone with a strong hostility toward homosexuals has a latent homosexual drive equal to the hostility.
ref: 1959 May, David McReynolds, “McReynolds Reply to [Seymour] Krim”, in Mattachine Review, volume V, number 5, Los Angeles: Mattachine Society, →ISSN, page 11, column 2:
text: If you asked the man in the modern street for his opinion of homosexuality, he would probably reply, 'I've nothing against queers myself but I wouldn't like one of them to marry my father.'
ref: 1968, Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant, London: Cape, →OCLC, page 207:
text: Queers are under siege.
Queers are being attacked on all front and I'm afraid it's ok with us.
In 1969, Queers were attacked. It wasn't ok. Queers fought back, took the streets. SHOUTED.
ref: 1990 June, Queers Read This, Published Anonymously by Queers [Distributed at New York Pride, 1990], →OCLC, page 2, column 3:
text: He also voiced his dislike for gays, stating: 'I don't believe in queers. I don't like queers. I don't hate them as a person, but what they do is wrong and an abomination against God.'
ref: 2013 February 5, “Football coach suspended for Michelle Obama insult”, in USA Today, →ISSN:
glosses: A person who is or appears homosexual, or who has homosexual qualities.
glosses: A person of any non-heterosexual sexuality or sexual identity.
examples: text: Gentrification often starts with the artists, revolutionaries, freaks, transfolks, and queers (what I would call my people) moving into poor neighborhoods inhabited by people of color.
ref: 2014, Inga Muscio, Autobiography of a Blue-eyed Devil:
glosses: A person of any genderqueer identity.
examples: text: You're shoving the queer.
ref: 1913, Rex Stout, Her Forbidden Knight, Carroll & Graf, published 1997, →ISBN, page 133:
synonyms: funny money
snide
glosses: Counterfeit money.
Hypernyms: LGBTQ
QUILTBAG
Derived terms: baby queer
gear queer
queerdo
Queer Street
shove the queer
smear the queer