queer

Meanings

Adjective

• Weird, odd or different; whimsical.
• Slightly unwell (mainly in "to feel queer").
• Drunk.
• Homosexual.
• Not heterosexual, or not cisgender: homosexual, bisexual, asexual, transgender, etc.
• Pertaining to sexual or gender behaviour or identity which does not conform to conventional heterosexual or cisgender norms, assumptions etc.

Noun

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

Verb

• To render an endeavor or agreement ineffective or null.
• To puzzle.
• To ridicule; to banter; to rally.
• To spoil the effect or success of, as by ridicule; to throw a wet blanket on; to spoil.
• To reevaluate or reinterpret (a work) with an eye to sexual orientation and/or to gender, as by applying queer theory.
• To make a work more appealing or attractive to LGBT and genderfluid people, such as by not having strict genders for playable characters.

Adverb

• Queerly.

Related

Similar words

• genderfluid, non-binary, intergender

Broader meaning words

• LGBTQ, QUILTBAG

Origin

• Attested since about 1510, from Scots, perhaps from Middle Low German (Brunswick dialect) queer (also compare with German quer), from Old Saxon thwerh, from Proto-West Germanic *þwerh, from Proto-Germanic *þwerhaz, from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ-.
• Compare Latin torqueo. Related to thwart. Began to be used to describe gay people in the late 1800s, see usage notes for more.