Queered

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To have altered or changed a traditional perspective
2. To have disrupted or challenged established norms and categories
3. To have introduced a different or more inclusive understanding of identity and sexuality

Etymology: The verb "queered" comes from "queer," but the adjective's own origin is shaky, and the sense "to spoil or ruin a plan" arrived long before any link to sexuality. Earlier in English, "queer" simply meant odd, off-centre or slightly wrong, and the Scottish records of about 1510 are among its first appearances. The most widely accepted guess links it to a German or Low German word meaning "oblique" or "diagonal," which in turn traces back to a Proto-Indo-European root for twisting, the same root behind Latin "torqueo," meaning "to twist." Some scholars doubt this, because the meanings and early dates do not line up neatly. The sense that gives the verb its modern edge came later. In the late 1800s, "queer" began to be used to describe gay people, and the word was gradually reclaimed in the late twentieth century. The verb reflects the older idea of disruption: to queer something is to throw it off its intended course, which fits the "off-centre" sense from which the word began.

Synonyms: altered, changed