Antedating of "Queer" as Adjective

[Fred Shapiro]

On Thu, 11 Sep 2003, George Thompson wrote:

> Thanks to the doings of the infamous Random House company and the
> unspeakable Bertlesmann, we do not have the volume of HDAS that might
> contain "606".  I suppose the word "queer" must have been found in this
> sense well before 1914.

Actually, "queer" is the notable antedating in what you posted.  OED has
1922 as its first use of "queer" 'homosexual' as an adjective.  It is
interesting that I recently posted a 1914 antedating for "queer"
'homosexual' as a noun, with both antedatings coming out of Southern
California.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
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