Etymologically
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queer

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:49. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kwɪə/[1]
  • US: /kwɪɹ/[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.[2][3][4] It first appears in Scots,[5][6][7] and is usually explained as borrowed from Low German queer (“oblique, off-centre”) (Brunswick dialect),[6][5][8] related to quer (“oblique, perverse, odd”),[6][5][9] from Middle High German twerch, Old High German twerh (“oblique”).[10][5] The German word is related to Old English þweorh (“crosswise, perverse”) and thwart,[10][11][5] and goes back to Proto-Germanic *þwerhaz[12] and Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to twist”), the root of torque and torture.[6][11][10] The OED is against this etymology on grounds of date and sense,[6] and gives it only as a possibility;[2] the Oxford Dictionary of English calls the German origin doubtful.[9] Johnson (1755) did not know its source.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Strange, odd or eccentric, and also of doubtful character: ?a1513, in William Dunbar's Flyting,[2] 1508 in Barnhart.[14] Etymonline dates it to about 1500,[6] and Merriam-Webster to 1513.[3]

Semantic evolution

In 16th-century thieves' cant queer meant bad, worthless or untrustworthy (1567–1865), the opposite of rum, good;[2][15] the OED gives that cant word a numbered entry of its own, of unknown origin, and says it was identified with this one after the 17th century.[2] From the cant sense came queer "counterfeit" of coins (1740) and the noun queer, counterfeit money (1819),[2][16] hence shove the queer, to pass false money (1859).[6] The sense "out of sorts, unwell, faint" is recorded from 1749;[2][17] Collins now labels the older senses old-fashioned.[18] The verb, first "to puzzle, ridicule, cheat" (1778),[2] came to mean "to spoil" by 1812,[6][5] as in queer the pitch (1846), first said of interrupting a street performer's act.[6][2] Queer Street, the imaginary home of people in difficulties, is from 1811.[6][7] The sense "homosexual" arose in American colloquial use: the OED's first adjective quotation is from 1914,[2] Barnhart's from 1922,[5] and the noun is found in a letter of the Marquess of Queensberry in 1894.[2][3] It was long a derogatory and offensive word,[2][3] but from about 1990, starting with the leaflet Queers Read This by the activist group Queer Nation, it was taken up by gay and lesbian people themselves,[2] and it came to describe anyone whose sexual or gender identity does not fit traditional norms.[2][18] Queer studies as an academic field is attested from 1994,[6] and the verb in the sense "to reinterpret from the standpoint of queer theory" from 1993.[2]

Timeline

  • ?a1513 – strange, odd; suspicious (Dunbar).[2]
  • 1567 – (cant) bad, worthless.[2]
  • 1740 – of coins, counterfeit.[2]
  • 1749 – unwell, faint.[2]
  • 1778 – verb, to ridicule, cheat.[2]
  • 1811 – Queer Street.[6]
  • 1812 – verb, to spoil.[6][5]
  • 1846 – queer the pitch.[6][2]
  • 1894 – noun, a homosexual man.[2][3]
  • 1914 – adjective, homosexual.[2]
  • 1990 – reclaimed, of sexual or gender identity outside traditional norms.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. (old-fashioned) Strange or odd; differing from what is usual: There was a queer smell in the cellar.
  2. (old-fashioned) Of doubtful honesty; suspicious or shady.
  3. (dated, chiefly British) Slightly unwell; faint or giddy.
  4. Having a sexual or gender identity that does not fit traditional norms; relating to gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people. Used by many people of themselves, but sometimes offensive.
  5. (dated, often offensive) Homosexual.
  6. (slang, dated) Of money, counterfeit.

Noun

  1. A person whose sexual or gender identity does not fit traditional norms; formerly, an offensive word for a homosexual man.
  2. (slang, dated) Counterfeit money.

Verb

  1. To spoil or put at risk: The rain queered our plans for a picnic.
  2. To examine or reinterpret something from the standpoint of queer theory.

Word family

  • queerish
  • queerly
  • queerness
  • Queer Street
  • queer theory

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster and Collins label the senses meaning "homosexual" as often offensive or disparaging,[3][18] while the OED records the reclaimed use as self-description.[2] Because of the potential confusion, the sense "unwell" is now often avoided.[17] In Irish and Scottish English the variant quare is used as an intensifier ("a quare long time"), recorded from 1865.[2][19] The English Dialect Dictionary records many regional phrases, such as queer as Dick's hatband for someone very sullen or odd.[19][6]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  15. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  18. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  19. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)