 A part of the forthcoming book, The Septic's Companion. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P QR S T U V W Y Z   These are the last three beers people kinder than you bought me. Click on them to see more or buy me one. Feel guilty? Think of the children I might have, and such like. |
quay n pron. "key". the place in a docks where boats and loaded and unloaded. The word exists in American English, but the British pronounciation can cause blank stares. queue n, v, pron. "cue" line. This doesn't really help the definition at all, as a line could be any number of things. A pencil line? A railway line? A line of Charlie? A line dancer? As a result of this potentially dangerous confusion, a word was developed by some British word-scientists to separate this particular line from all the others. A "queue" is a line of people. To queue is to be one of those queueing in the queue; The word means "tail" in French, and is used in the same context. Americans do in fact use the word, but only in the "you're third in the queue!" type telephone call waiting systems. quid n pound (currency). "Quid" is to "pound" what "buck" is to "dollar". The word is very widely recognised and socially acceptable but informal - you could quite easily say: "well, they offered me 10,000 quid for the car" but you wouldn't hear any BBC announcers reporting: "the government today authorised a ten million quid increase in health service funding". This perhaps says more about the BBC than this one particular word, but I digress. quim n female genitalia. Rather antiquated. The person who asked about the word also asked me: "As bad as American "cunt" or "twat"? Or more akin to the mellower "pussy"? Would Britwomen themselves ever use the term to refer to their own anatomy with other women friends? Would men ever use it to refer to women in a derogatory way?" No, No, Yes, No, Yes. Hope that helps.