Queue

[cosmolinguist]

Today I found myself thinking about the word queue and how great it is.

It's great because it's just one letter, really, and onto this poor unsuspecting q are added a rather extraneous u and e. And then, after that, for reasons I can't explain, another u and e! Why? It must be because it's British. That's the only explanation I can think of.

Because it is a British word, I'm sure of it. I might just think this because my countrymen will say they're standing in a line instead of in a queue, but I think it's also because the queue is a phenomenon unto itself here in a way that lines never are for the people who stand in them.

I mean, last week I read about some guy who beat up another guy he recognized as having recently commited the cadrinal sin of Queue Jumping. Imagine! He just saw this guy in the street and pummeled him until he had to pay a couple hundred quid in reparations. I don't think that sort of thing happens where people stand in lines.

But such fervent dedication to an ideal like queuing sounds very British to me. Especially when you add in the extraneous-vowel factor...

Comments

[strangeidea.livejournal.com]

Yes! One of my absolute favorite words in the English language.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

I managed to spell it once in Scrabble!

[strangeidea.livejournal.com]

I could see it as being a terribly convenient Scrabble word - I mean, outside of the Q, it's all vowels and there's little worse than being stuck with a Q and six vowels. Except maybe seven vowels.

[setharoo.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of one of the lines Arthur Dent has in the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. "I'm British, I know how to queue!" (Was that in the book? I don't remember...)

[cosmolinguist]

I don't remember if that was in the books or not (it's been so long since I read them), but I would guess not. The book was very British, but more subtly; the movie definitely seemed, to me, made for a more American audience. Did you like the film version?

And I miss you lots, too!

[phil99.livejournal.com]

That line wasn't in the book, as far as my memory goes. Probably a good thing ;)

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

That entire scene wasn't in the book. Trisha never was abducted by the Vogons in the book, thus they never needed to rescue her, thus the never needed to queue.

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

I love it, yes, but my Literacy class think it's crazy to expend so many letters on something so short.

[cosmolinguist]

I think it's crazy too. But then, I'm American, and thus illiterate by at least some standards (like Andrew's!).

[offensive-mango.livejournal.com]

Get out of my head! I was thinking that very thing today, on the way to Gatwick Airport, when the signs over road up to the toll booths just had the letter "Q" in lights over them to indicate a queue ahead.

I was thinking "So if Q can indicate it, why do we need the ueue?"

I'm British enough these days to tut at queueueueue jumpererers.

[andrewwyld.livejournal.com]

It's French, and it means tail.

[cosmolinguist]

Oh, that figures. I should've known; I used to taunt my Francophile roommate with the fact that the language made no sense because I never knew which letters to say and which not to. And French is the source for other extraneous letters in British English, as well, like the us in colour and humour and whatnot.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

It's the only word in English that is pronounced the same, plus or minus 4 letters.

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, I think that's how I learned the word in the first place. I heard some version of that riddle in my English class when I was 12 or 13 and it mystified the class, so our teacher had to tell us the answer. I remember that.

[tenbaset.livejournal.com]

It's because queues are always just a bit too long when you have to stand in them. :-)