2020-12-12
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด Q – queer & quaint & odd
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง queer = ‘KWEER’
ออกเสียง quaint = ‘KWEYNT’
ออกเสียง odd = ‘OD’
Dictionary.com
USAGE NOTE FOR QUEER
Since the early 20th century,
queer has had the meaning “gay or lesbian,”
and for much of the time has been used
with disparaging intent and perceived as insulting.
Since the 1980s, queer has increasingly been adopted
especially among younger members of the gay and lesbian community
as a positive term of self-reference.
However, the term is not universally acceptedwithin the LGBT community,
and might still be viewed by some as degrading.
So the label queer can be offensiveand painful or embraced and affirming
—it all depends on the speaker’s identity, relationshipto the subject,
and the context of use.
In-group vocabulary is not alwaysappropriate for use by others.
Queer is also a term used by activists and academics:
queer politics; scholars of queer literature.
The term has more recently come to include
any person whose sexuality or gender identity falls outside the heterosexual norm or the gender binary.
A person identifying as queer can be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender,
genderqueer, gender-fluid, etc.,
and the use of queer allows for the expression of LGBTQ community membership without requiring any specific label.
Dictionary.com
ABOUT THIS WORD
What does queer mean?
While queer has historicallymeant “strange” or “odd,”
the word is more often used as a slur against
—but also since reclaimed as a self-identifier
—for non-heterosexual or non-cisgender people.
Content warning: this article containsoffensive and sensitive content.
Where did the term queer come from?
Queer is recorded in Scottish in the 16th century,
when it meant “strange” or “eccentric,”
possibly related to the German quer (“perverse” or “odd”).
At least by the late 1800s, queer was deployed
as a derogatory term for an effeminate or gay men.
One example comes from a letter written in 1894 from the Marquess of Queensberry to his son, Lord Alfred Douglas, in which he insults Lord Roseberry, the presumed lover of his late son Francis, as a “snob queer.”
The Marquess’s homophobia ultimately led to the prosecution and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde, as well.
Early on, queer was being used as a modifier as well, seen in a 1914 Los Angeles Times article that described a club as where “the ‘queer’ people have a good time.”
In the late 1980s, writers, scholars, and activists in the LGBT community began advocating for a re-appropriation of the word queer.
In 1990, this effort focused on queer as a collective term for gay and lesbian people. Queer was seen as a way to refer to gay and lesbian people without being gender-essentialist or causing divisions within the community.
The queer movement was especiallyfocused on rejecting
the so-called assimilationist stances of many white folks in the gay community, criticized for their desire to be fully included in mainstream institutions like the army and marriage.
Later in the 1990s, those not only with alternative sexual orientations but also alternative gender orientations began to refer to themselves as genderqueer. GenderPAC founder Riki Anne Wilchins defined the term in a transgender newsletter in spring 1995: “It’s about all of us who are genderqueer: diesel dykes and stone butches, leatherqueens and radical fairies, nelly fags, crossdressers, intersexed, transsexuals…and those of us whose gender expressions are so complex they haven’t even been named yet.”
Dictionary.com
What’s Another Word For “Cute”?
quaint
In some cases, we use cute to describe
something or someone with old-fashioned charm
when a better word might be quaint.
A quaint village (think independent shops, cafes, and friendly people)
evokes a different image than a cuteone
—would that be a kitten-themed village?
Quaint, like cute, can also be used in a snide sense,
such as “Isn’t that quaint?” when referring tosomething you deem
odd or ridiculously out-of-date, like writing a check at the grocery store.
Evidence of the word can be found as far back as 1175–1225.
The word queinte is a variant of the French word cointe, meaning “clever, pleasing.”
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Usage of Queer
Adjective
Use of the word queer as referring and relating to sexual orientation,
and, more recently, to gender identity, has changed dramatically since the 1980s.
Formerly used only as a strongly pejorative term,
queer is now commonly used by some as a positive self-descriptor.
The word is also prominent as a neutral term in academic contexts
that deal with gender and sexuality.
The rainbow colors of the flags that wave at Pride parades are meant to celebrate the diversity of a community that includes people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and—all the rest. — Sean Thomas-Breitfield
Through interviews, mapping, and an examination of local history and present developments, this paper concludes that gays, lesbians and other members of the queer community often create the liberating social spaces that attract further settlement by "non-conformists." — Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting
The pejorative uses of queer, however, have certainly not vanished.
Both the adjective and noun continue to be highly offensive when used disparagingly.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,
queer′ish adj.
queer′ly adv.
queer′ness n.
Usage Note:
A reclaimed word is a word that was formerly used solely as a slur
but that has been semantically overturned by members of the maligned group,
who use it as a term of defiant pride.
Queer is an example of a word undergoing this process.
For decades queer was used as a derogatory adjective for gays and lesbians,
but in the 1980s the term began to be used by gay and lesbian activists
as a term of self-identification.
Eventually, it came to be used as an umbrellaterm
that included gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people.
Nevertheless, a sizable percentage of people to whom this term might apply still hold queer to be a hateful insult, and its use by heterosexuals is often considered offensive.
Similarly, other reclaimed words are usually offensive to the in-group when used by outsiders, so caution must be taken with their use when one is not a member of the group.
Collins English Dictionaryqueerness n
Usage:
Although the term queer meaning homosexual
is still considered highly offensive when used by non-homosexuals,
it is often used by homosexuals themselves as a positive term,
as in queer politics, queer cinema
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary,
queer′ly, adv.
queer′ness, n.
usage:
queer has been used as an adjective and noun
meaning respectively “homosexual” and “a homosexual”
since the 1920s, and for much of the time has been used in a disparaging manner.
Since about 1990 the word has increasingly been adopted as a preferred term
by young or radical homosexuals and in the academic community.
In the mainstream homosexual community,
however, gay and lesbian remain the terms of choice.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Choose the Right Synonym for quaint
STRANGE, SINGULAR, UNIQUE, PECULIAR, ECCENTRIC, ERRATIC, ODD, QUAINT, OUTLANDISH
mean departing from what is ordinary, usual, or to be expected.
STRANGE stresses unfamiliarity and may apply to the foreign, the unnatural, the unaccountable.
a journey filled with strange sights
SINGULAR suggests individuality or puzzling strangeness.
a singular feeling of impending disaster
UNIQUE implies singularity and the fact of being without a known parallel.
a career unique in the annals of science
PECULIAR implies a marked distinctiveness.
the peculiar status of America's first lady
ECCENTRIC suggests a wide divergence from the usual or normal especially in behavior.
the eccentric eating habits of preschoolers
ERRATIC stresses a capricious and unpredictable wandering or deviating.
a friend's suddenly erratic behavior
ODD applies to a departure from the regular or expected.
an odd sense of humor
QUAINT suggests an old-fashioned but pleasant oddness.
a quaint fishing village
OUTLANDISH applies to what is uncouth, bizarre, or barbaric.
Outlandish fashions of the time
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Choose the Right Synonym for odd
Adjective
STRANGE, SINGULAR, UNIQUE, PECULIAR, ECCENTRIC, ERRATIC, ODD, QUAINT, OUTLANDISH
mean departing from what is ordinary, usual, or to be expected.
STRANGE stresses unfamiliarity and may apply to the foreign, the unnatural, the unaccountable.
a journey filled with strange sights
SINGULAR suggests individuality or puzzling strangeness.
a singular feeling of impending disaster
UNIQUE implies singularity and the fact of being without a known parallel.
a career unique in the annals of science
PECULIAR implies a marked distinctiveness.
the peculiar status of America's first lady
ECCENTRIC suggests a wide divergence from the usual or normal especially in behavior.
the eccentric eating habits of preschoolers
ERRATIC stresses a capricious and unpredictable wandering or deviating.
a friend's suddenly erratic behavior
ODD applies to a departure from the regular or expected.
an odd sense of humor
QUAINT suggests an old-fashioned but pleasant oddness.
a quaint fishing village
OUTLANDISH applies to what is uncouth, bizarre, or barbaric.
outlandish fashions of the time
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Word History
The Odd History of 'Odd'
The word comes to us from geography
Want to hear something odd about the word odd?
It does not have its origins in mathematics,
though it now contrasts nicely with even;
neither does it begin with the unusual or peculiar,
though it's perfectly at home in phrases like "an odd thing."
No, odd started somewhere else entirely: geography.
'Odd' was at first solidly complimentary. If you were odd in a 15th or 16th century kind of way, you were "outstanding, illustrious."
Odd comes from the Old Norse word oddi, meaning "point of land."
Points of land so designated in Old Norse being roughly triangular,
oddi was over time generalized to mean "triangle."
Since a point of land can be seen as the apex,or tip, of a triangle,
with the other two angles forming a pair at the base,
the word oddi was extended tomean "odd number"
—the item of a threesome left over after the other two items are paired off.
Scandinavians dominated northern and central England in the Middle Ages, and oddi was presumably borrowed into English at some point during that era;
current evidence has the word first recorded in the early 14th century as the adjective odde, meaning"without a corresponding mate."
By the late 14th century, we see evidence of the word meaning "unconforming, irregular."
The word as applied to people was at first solidly complimentary.
If you were odd in a 15th or 16th century kind of way,
you were "outstanding, illustrious."
It wasn't until the 17th century that
the modern sense of odd meaning "peculiar, eccentric" became widely used.
The story of odd has an odd coda to it.
There exists an obscure noun odd too.
It's used only in northern England and Scotland,
and it refers to a small point of land.
It too comes from Scandinavia, though it's a newcomer: the Oxford English Dictionary reports that it dates only to the mid-19th century. How odd.
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression
queer & quaint & odd
Queer means “unusually different,”
“differing from the normal or expected.”
“unconventional or eccentric”:
“His conception of loyalty to the company is indeed queer. “
“You have a queer way of showing you appreciation.”
Queer is also a slang term meaning “fake” or “counterfeit” (queer money).
As a noun, queer is a slang term for homosexual.
Quaint means “old fashioned,” “interesting,” “curiously pleasing,”
“out of date but endearing”: “
It was a quaint house with its cupola and gingerbread trimming.”or
“The druggist has a quaint way of peering at you over his glasses.”
Odd means “unusual,” “unexpected,” “differing from the ordinary,”
“freakish”:
“Wearing sneakers to a formal dance seemed odd behavior to the committee.”
“This woman has an odd habit of never speaking to anyone whom she passes on the street.”
Related words are unconventional, strange, peculiar, singular,
outlandish, eccentric, extraordinary,
uncommon, rare, bizarre, anomalous, and abnormal.
