queer

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Relating to people whose sexuality or gender does not fit traditional norms; used as a positive self-description by many.

   She is active in the city's queer community.

2. 2
   adj

   Strange or unusual.

   There was a queer smell coming from the kitchen.

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 19th century, see usage notes for more.

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