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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

q-word en · NOUN

Meanings

  1. (alt-of) Alternative letter-case form of Q-word (“(linguistics) question word”).
    alt of Q-word
    • […] was derived through morphological means. This is the situation in languages in which the indefinite marker seems to have been derived from the q-word. In other languages the q-word was morphologically derived from the indefinite word. 1985, The Journal of West African Languages:
    • The q-word questions ask for information about that element only which is replaced by the question word. The position of the q-word is in situ of the element it replaces, except when replacing a subject. 2000, Maria Soukka, A descriptive grammar of Noon: a Cangin language of Senegal:
  2. The word queer.
    • Last semester, I noticed that students in my Introduction to Queer Studies course (Queer Theory/Queer Lives) were just as interested in the b-word (bisexuality) as the q-word (queer). They perked up when I made references to the history of bisexual movements, and by the end of the semester they began to draw interesting connections between "bi" and "queer." 2005, Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, Agatha Beins, Women's Studies for the Future: Foundations, Interrogations, Politics, Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 97:
  3. (humorous, qualifier:at a workplace) The word quiet, taken as a bad omen that once uttered the workplace will suddenly become exceptionally busy.
    • Even among Western doctors and surgeons, there is a widely held superstition about the q'''-word - 'quiet' - which should never be spoken during a hospital shift. 2025, Alice Mah, Red Pockets: A Tale of Inheritance, Ghosts and the Future, Doubleday Canada, →ISBN, page 128:
  4. Any word beginning with q, especially one that is not normally taboo but is considered (often humorously) to be so in the given context.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
q-words Number=Plur lexicographic
Q-word alternative lexicographic

Relateds

r-word · i-word · n-word · y-word · r-slur · q-word · n-bomb · f-slur · j-word · p-word · f-word · x-word · w-word · o-word · e-word · d-word · b-word · k-word · v-word · u-word · s-word · a-word (‘x’-word euphemisms) · Q-word · z-word · t-word · L-bomb · l-word · f-bomb · related terms C-bomb · h-word · g-word · G-word · Q-slur · m-word · c-word