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queer

adjective

  1. umbrella term for sexual and gender minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or cisgender
L25058 on Wikidata ↗

noun

  1. umbrella term for sexual and gender minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or cisgender
L326230 on Wikidata ↗

verb

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L332652 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /kwɪə/ / /kwɪɹ/ / /kwiə̯/

adj

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.

  1. Homosexual.

    “Such a Momma’s boy.” The old men had started up again—or perhaps they had never stopped. “No matter who he schtupped. Even Marilyn. I wouldn’t be surprised he was queer.” / “Strange, yes. Weird, yes. Queer, I don’t think.”

    This is a one-shot thing we got goin’ on here. […] You know I ain’t queer.

  2. Non-heterosexual or non-cisgender: homosexual, bisexual, asexual, transgender, etc.
  3. Pertaining to sexual or gender behaviour or identity which does not conform to conventional heterosexual or cisgender norms, assumptions etc.

    the queer community

    If gender is no longer to be understood as consolidated through normative sexuality, then is there a crisis of gender that is specific to queer contexts?

  4. Strange, odd, or different; whimsical.

    An old long-faced, long-bodied servant, gave a queer look

    “I wish I hadn’t cried so much!” said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. “I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That will be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.”

  5. Slightly unwell.

    I felt queer after eating those shrimp.

    Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. … When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.

  6. Drunk.

adv

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.

  1. Queerly.
  2. Very, extremely.

    Twas a queer bachram in the pub that night!

    Ah, but she was the queer old skeowsha anyhow, Anna Livia, trinkettoes!”

noun

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.

  1. A person who is or appears homosexual, or who has homosexual qualities.

    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 [...]

    [...] 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.

  2. A person of any non-heterosexual sexuality or sexual identity.
  3. A person of any genderqueer identity.

    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.

  4. Counterfeit money.

    You're shoving the queer.

verb

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.

  1. To render an endeavor or agreement ineffective or null.

    I was a lot more apt to queer it than help it.

  2. To puzzle.

    "But lor-a-mussy, Jacob, how could a woman get away from here with all her boxes in the middle of the night?" "That's what queered me," and Spink slowly shook his head, "and queered a good many; for of course it got newsed about […]"

    "Where do you come from?" Stanley queered.

  3. To ridicule; to banter; to rally.
  4. To spoil the effect or success of, as by ridicule; to throw a wet blanket on; to spoil.

    "Food is what queered the party. We ordered a big supper to be sent up to the room about two o'clock. Alec didn't give the waiter a tip, so I guess the little bastard snitched."

    Well, then I got buried—shell dropped, and the dug-out caved in—and that queered me. They sent me home.

  5. To reevaluate or reinterpret (a work) with an eye to sexual orientation and/or to gender, as by applying queer theory.

    If I go, for instance, to the history of the church in Latin America, and decide to queer the history of the Jesuitic Missions, I may find that, in many ways, the missions were more sexual than Christian.

    Jonathan Goldberg further explores the implications of queering history in his essay in the same volume.

  6. To make a work more appealing or attractive to LGBT people, such as by not having strict genders for playable characters.
queer — meaning, definition (adjective, noun, verb) · Vinony