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What is the difference between queer and lesbian?

queer | lesbian | Hypernyms |

Lesbian is a hypernym of queer.



As adjectives the difference between queer and lesbian

is that queer is weird, odd or different; whimsical while lesbian is homosexual; preferring female romantic or sexual partners.

As nouns the difference between queer and lesbian

is that queer is a person who is or appears homosexual, or who has homosexual qualities while lesbian is a homosexual female, a woman who is sexually or romantically attracted to other women.

As a verb queer

is to render an endeavor or agreement ineffective or null.

As an adverb queer

is queerly.

queer

English

(wikipedia queer)

Adjective

(er)
  • (now, slightly, dated) Weird, odd or different; whimsical.
  • * (Washington Irving)
  • * 1865 , (Lewis Carroll), (w, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
  • “I wish I hadn’t cried so much!” said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. “I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That will be a queer' thing, to be sure! However, everything is ' queer to-day.”
  • * , chapter=5
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.}}
  • (slightly, dated) Slightly unwell (mainly in'' ''to feel queer ).
  • * , chapter=5
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. … When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer , I suppose.}}
  • (colloquial) Homosexual.
  • More broadly: pertaining to sexual behaviour or identity which does not conform to conventional heterosexual standards, assumptions etc.
  • *1999 , (Judith Butler), Gender Trouble , Routledge 2002, Preface to 1999 edition:
  • *:If gender is no longer to be understood as consolidated through normative sexuality, then is there a crisis of gender that is specific to queer contexts?
  • Synonyms

    * See also those of strange.

    Derived terms

    * queercore * queer fish * queerplatonic * queerish * queerly * queerness * queer theory

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (colloquial) A person who is or appears homosexual, or who has homosexual qualities.
  • (colloquial) A person of atypical sexuality or sexual identity.
  • (colloquial, vulgar, derogatory) General term of abuse, casting aspersions on target's sexuality; compare (gay).
  • Counterfeit money.
  • * 1913 , edition, ISBN 0786704446, page 133:
  • You're shoving the queer .

    Usage notes

    * The use of this word to mean "homosexual" was formerly, and is often still, considered pejorative. However, in the way that all language is dynamic and pliable, the word is also sometimes now used (primarily as adjective) as a neutral or even positive descriptive term, including by some (primarily younger) homosexuals. In its pejorative use, it is applied usually to males. In its modern neutral use, it is applied to all genders. * Some LGBT individuals now use the term as an all-inclusive term for the GLBTIQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, Intersex, Queer) etc. community. This may include people who consider themselves to be politically (or otherwise sociologically) GLBTIQ without necessarily displaying, or even simply inclined towards behavior that is not heteronormative. This new usage is again by primarily younger people. * 'Queer' is also used as a positive term for people, some of whom reject mainstream-gay values and culture as exclusive and limiting. People who identify with this version of queer distance themselves from the commercialisation and (relatively) conformist values of the gay mainstream and embrace fluid and unconstrained definitions of sexuality and gender. There is some common ground between this definition of queer and the punk and DIY scenes. See also "genderqueer". * In the English dialect of the southern United States, the two senses of the adjective queer'' (''homosexual'' and ''weird, odd, different, or unwell'') are sometimes distinguished by pronunciation. Queer (''homosexual'') is pronounced (kwîr), queer (''weird, odd, different, or unwell'') is pronounced (kwär). This is generally considered old-fashioned and is only used when the word is emphasized, as in the phrase "''that's awful queer " (pronounced TH?ts ôr'f?l kwär). The distinction is dying out as that latter sense of the word dies out.

    Hypernyms

    * LGBTQ

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To render an endeavor or agreement ineffective or null.
  • * 1955 , edition, ISBN 0553249592, page 78:
  • I was a lot more apt to queer it than help it.
  • To reevaluate or reinterpret a work with an eye to sexual orientation and/or to gender, as by applying queer theory.
  • * 2003 , Marcella Althaus-Reid, The Queer God (page 9)
  • If I go, for instance, to the history of the church in Latin America, and decide to queer the history of the Jesuitic Missions, I may find that, in many ways, the missions were more sexual than Christian.
  • * 2006 , Carla Freccero, Queer/Early/Modern (page 80)
  • Jonathan Goldberg further explores the implications of queering history in his essay in the same volume.

    Synonyms

    * invalidate

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • queerly
  • lesbian

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (of a woman) Homosexual; preferring female romantic or sexual partners.
  • She is lesbian .
  • (of a romantic or sexual act or relationship) Between two women; homosexual.
  • She's involved in a lesbian relationship.
    Lesbian marriage is still illegal in some nations.
  • * 2011 , Michael Bruce, ?Robert M. Stewart, College Sex - Philosophy for Everyone (ISBN 1444341448), page 32:
  • (especially of an institution or group) Intended for lesbians.
  • We're going to a lesbian bar tonight.
  • * 2000 , Bonnie Zimmerman, Encyclopedia of lesbian and gay histories and cultures , volume 1, page 135:
  • Some lesbians also felt comfortable in the entertainment clubs in the black section of the city; these clubs were not lesbian but were lesbian friendly.
  • * 2008 , Carl Abbott, How cities won the West: four centuries of urban change , page 283:
  • Openly gay poets such as Allen Ginsberg were prominent among the beats, and many North Beach bars were gay and lesbian as well as bohemian.

    Synonyms

    * , gay (preferred by some lesbians), homosexual (not specific to female homosexuality) * , gay (preferred by some lesbians), homosexual (not specific to female homosexuality)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A homosexual female, a woman who is sexually or romantically attracted to other women.
  • Synonyms

    * sapphist * (offensive) Amy-John, beaver eater, beanflicker, boondagger, bulldiker, bulldyker, carpet muncher, clam smacker, crack snacker, cunt-lapper, donut bumper, dyke, lesbianist, lezzer, lezzie, lezzo, rug muncher, scissor sister, todger dodger, vagitarian, clitorist * See also

    Hypernyms

    * LGBT * gay * homosexual * queer

    Derived terms

    * hasbian * wasbian

    See also

    *

    Anagrams

    * * ----