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Finding out that the word "queue" comes from old french "coeu" meaning coward, from latin for "tail", was fascinating. However, what I'd hoped to learn was why the word is spelled and pronounced as it is. And I'm sure there is someone out there who can give me the reason.
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Carpal Tunnel
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old french "coeu" meaning coward, from latin for "tail", Well now, that's interesting, since the French for heart is coeur. I can't explain the Hx. of the French pronunciation, but queue is pronounced CUE-you because that's what it looks like. (And I don't wanna hear 'bout no stinkin' accents, neither.) Two syllables. Period. No arguin'.
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I haven't looked it up, but isn't the pigtail of the Chinese man also called a queue?
Will now look it up to see whether I've malremembered.
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>pigtail
that's how I remember it, tue...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yes, that was it, but, wow, the qu- pages are very much fun! All kinds of drinking vessels and other unusual words! Well worth the look. I especially like 'queme'--to please; and 'quemeful'--merciful. Need to further check out 'qualled' to see whether I can find a more extensive definition than 'of quail' to see whether it's the fowl or the verb...
Nope. Qualled is strictly of the verb. Shoot. I hate losing a nature word...
Kupatchka, I do hope you'll learn soon why queue is spelled as it is!!! It is very interesting to think about that coward at the tail end of some group of fighting men.
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It is very interesting to think about that coward at the tail end of some group of fighting men.
Yes, Wordwind, and it's even more interesting to reflect on the fact that at the very tail end of all those fighting men is a General safely esconced in his impenetrable redoubt - which reminds us all of this question so often asked by mourning mothers throughout the ages:
"Why do young men fight old men's wars?"
As to why "queue" is spelled "queue" and not "cue", one can ask why "quay" is pronounced "key".
The British seem to have a certain fascinating eccentricity about such things [perhaps because they think they invented the language]. Americans are less given to these embroideries. For them, a "Quay" is a "Key", not a "Quay", and they will not stand for "queues".
In fact, you can't even get an American to stand in a line-up any more [unless they happen to be in police custody, of course]. They can even buy their groceries with a digitized plastic card.
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Carpal Tunnel
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You haven't been to Wal-Mart recently, have you, plutarch?
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You haven't been to Wal-Mart recently, have you, plutarch?
Never inside if there is a line-up, Wordwind. I'm spoiled too.
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...pigtail of the Chinese...
Does he have to be Chinese?
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Does he have to be Chinese?
Not if he knows Kung Fu.
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queue is pronounced CUE-you
And here I thought it was pronounced kwee-wee.
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Queue is pronounced the same as 'cue' in American English, for the record. Here's MW:
"Pronunciation: 'kyü"
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stranger
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As to why "queue" is spelled "queue" and not "cue", one can ask why "quay" is pronounced "key".
The British seem to have a certain fascinating eccentricity about such things [perhaps because they think they invented the language]. Americans are less given to these embroideries. For them, a "Quay" is a "Key", not a "Quay", and they will not stand for "queues".
Spelling it 'quay' is, indeed, a pain in the bum. And it's all the fault of pretentious nitwits who fancied themselves as sophisticated.
'Quay' used to be spelt 'key' (ME 'key' from OFr 'kay'). But the spelling was changed under the influence of modern French 'quai'. (Concise Oxford Dictionary, 10th ed)
Don't know why 'queue' is spelt like that, but it's from the French again.
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Don't know why 'queue' is spelt like that, but it's from the French again.
Perhaps it's etymological warfare.
And, speaking of that, was it also the French who got us hung up on guerrilla [as in "guerilla warfare"] - which any Playstation iPodder will tell you should be spelled "gorilla" - and, also strung us up on "manoeuvre"?
Who hasn't been out-manoeuvered by "manoeuvre", I ask you?
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stranger
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was it also the French who got us hung up on guerrilla [as in "guerilla warfare"]
Wouldn't be at all surprised!!
They're the culprits for us losing 'cw' and having to spell it 'qu'. Just so that English looked like a posh (?) Romance language. People should keep their pretensions to themselves.
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People should keep their pretensions to themselves.
When they keep it to themselves, Millymax, it's called "hypertension".
Hell, no! Why keep it to yourself? Who needs it? Why can't people "let it go"? :)
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People should keep their pretensions to themselves.  Huh? Did somebody call me? I was dead asleep and I swear I thought I heard somebody call my name. Oh yeah...now I see. You people are talking about people who are pretentious. Yeah, I think we tried that once on Awad. Everyone agreed to stop being pretentious and so I was the only one who posted here for three days. Me? My only pretention is my overuse of the word pretentious. But if like me you realize the folly of being pretentious then being pretentious can be fun. Sorry Milly, that is all I know about being pretentious. But hey, I know a lot about being a screwball. And I hope some screwball starts a thread. 
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Pooh-Bah
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Is one who stops being pretentious rendered posttentious? Or just tentious?
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enthusiast
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Are you serious? In my entire life, I have only ever heard this word pronounced as an exact homophone of its inital letter. I did not even know that anyone else would consider pronouncing it differently.
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Pooh-Bah
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To say nothing of pronouncing 'buoy' (boi) as booey.
How d'y'all pronounce buoyancy? Don't tell me it's 'booeyancy'.
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Carpal Tunnel
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> Don't tell me it's 'booeyancy'
Don't cut Miz J adrift, you bad buoy, she'll get all disorientated :]
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Pooh-Bah
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Is that Miz J from near Luoyville?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, Looeyville is the second-best pronunciation (by a long way, mind) after LOO-uh-vull. And how else IS there to say buoy than boo-ey? Don't tell me it's boy!  Ew...I heard some Brit-speaker on TV the other day say that not-real word disorientated... 
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queue is pronounced CUE-you because that's what it looks like. (And I don't wanna hear
'bout no stinkin' accents, neither.) Two syllables. Period. No arguin'.
>Are you serious?
only Ms. J is serious, as in seriously laying these little word-snares, and then chortling seriously when someone trips one. we've *mostly learned to ignore them.
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Carpal Tunnel
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HEY!
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'd not heard that one before, but I am becoming (almost) used to hearing words of one syllable become polysyllabilized.
The first time i ever noticed it was some many years ago when I was visiting beautiful downtown Cary NC. The motel in which we were staying was pretty much taken over by a convention of DeMolays and Jobs' Daughters, neither one of which I had ever heard before. About midnight there was a great commotion in the hall and I looked out to see mainly unclad teenagers of both genders chasing one another up and down the hall. In the morning I noticed all these kids all scrubbed and dressed up going to the chapel at the end of the motel. YES, dear friends, I am not making this up, that motel had a chapel! With services nightly and Sunday. I commented to Chris that they'd been up all night sowing their wild oats and were now going in to pray for a crop failure.
But I have digressed. During the night a rather nondescript car had been parked in front of our motel window, and the owner had come out to discover that the front tire was quite flat. So flat, in fact, that he could not get the jack under the bumper, which was resting on the curb. I swear this is true. He got his girlfriend, wife, significant other, whatever she was (she was of the large hair persuasion) to back the car away from the curb. When she had scraped back far enough to let this guy put the jack in place he said, "OK, now put it in pie-ark."
And I have observed it closer to home. MUCH closer. Peggy's accent had pretty much been ameliorated by 10 years of the Denver non-accent, which I find to be a common thing in many metro areas where there is widespread miscegenation of accents. They all tend to blend together.
But now, having gone well into our second year of living here in Marion, she now tells the kids, "It's time for bay-id."
Marion, BTW, is the county seat of a rural county (McDowell) in western NC. There are about 45,000 people in 425 square miles, so it's not densely populated. The phone book lists 43 restaurants and about 90 churches in the county! And I have been told that this latter number is not inclusive because many churches don't have phones. We don't live in the Bible Belt, we live in a belthole in the Bible Belt!
TEd
TEd
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up all night sowing their wild oats and were now going in to pray for a crop failure. HA! That is a great saying!  Well of course bed has two syllables; how else would anybody say bed other than bay-id? Oh, wait a minute; in Appalachia they say bay-ud.
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