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queer

Pronunciation: /kwɪə/

The English word “queer” has 18 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Homosexual.
  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.
  4. Strange, odd, or different; whimsical.
  5. Slightly unwell.
  6. Drunk.

noun

  1. A person who is or appears homosexual, or who has homosexual qualities.
  2. A person of any non-heterosexual sexuality or sexual identity.
  3. A person of any genderqueer identity.
  4. Counterfeit money.

verb

  1. To render an endeavor or agreement ineffective or null.
  2. To puzzle.
  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.
  5. To reevaluate or reinterpret (a work) with an eye to sexual orientation and/or to gender, as by applying queer theory.
  6. To make a work more appealing or attractive to LGBT people, such as by not having strict genders for playable characters.

adverb

  1. Queerly.
  2. Very, extremely.

Etymology

Attested since about 1510, at first in Scots. Usually taken to be from Middle Low German (Brunswick dialect) queer (“oblique, off-centre”) 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…

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