Queerly

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. In a way that is peculiar or unconventional
2. In a fashion that is notably unusual or eccentric
3. Acting in a manner that is strange or out of the ordinary

Etymology: Queerly is the adverb of queer, and its history is really the history of the adjective it grows from. Queer goes back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning "across" or "askew," which gave Old High German "twërh" (transverse) and German "quer," still meaning "crosswise" today. The sense of something turned sideways or off-true carried into English, where queer first meant oblique or perverse before it came to mean strange. The adverb is simple in construction: queer plus the suffix "-ly," which descends from Old English "-līce," the same ending that turns many adjectives into adverbs. So "queerly" literally means "in a crosswise or off-true manner," and the "strange" sense is the later, figurative development. The word's core idea is deviation from the straight and expected, which is why the same root that gives German "quer" a plain spatial meaning gave English a word for oddity.

Synonyms: strangely, oddly, unusually, peculiarly

Antonyms: normally, typically, usually, commonly