queer

I can't hear "queer" without remembering (even if it's in the way back of my mind) Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening:

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake...."

I like its larger meaning too, to apply to people or thinks that are quirky or odd. It's a fine word all around.

Ooh! We're more slanty than other Wordies! :-D

I'm with frindley and c_b on this. And I like the word whether in isolation or not--unless, of course, it's used as a weapon.

When some twenty years ago, certain people used to make the complaint, "You know, I don't have anything against homosexuals personally, I just don't like the way they took a wonderful word like 'gay' and made it mean something, you know, dirty" – or something to that effect, I always wanted to reply (but never really had the chance or perhaps the courage to): "Is that so? Well, in my opinion, your views are rather QUEER."

I like both words, "gay" and "queer," in all their meanings, though I suspect that "gay" in the sense of "cheerful, playful" has been relegated to history. But I hope that "queer" keeps its meaning "odd" alongside its use by gays and lesbians who feel no need to apologize for being, at least in one small way, different from the majority. I always liked the notion that the word came from the German quer, which means "oblique, slanted, diagonal." I like being the diagonal in the dominant grid.

Call me queer, but I like this word. :-)

This word will always remind me of Enid Blyton. Always.

In isolation, I think strange before I think gay. But how often does one encounter words in genuine isolation? Almost never. And to that end, nearly all situations in which I hear/read the word queer nowadays are referring to homosexuality.

Yes, thanks, I like it, too, but as long as I'm not suddenly turned into a woman, I don't actually need the term homosexual that frequently. Besides, also in informal German speech it would sound spicy I think.^^

Seems to me like it would depend on the native speaker and how often he or she encounters gay people and/or has reason to talk about gay people. Certainly the word queer is not used very often in ordinary conversation (in my tiny little life) without the homosexual connotation being at the very least strongly implied. Other native English speakers may differ in this.

I think it's a great word, though. I have a thing for qu- words. :)

I wonder, when a native speaker hears the word queer in whatever context, is the first association homosexual or is the order really more like the one on dictionary.com (with homosexual in fifth place)?

"The queerest of the queer
The strangest of the strange
The coldest of the cool
The lamest of the lame
The numbest of the dumb
I hate to see you here
You choke behind a smile
A fake behind the fear
The queerest of the queer"