North American breadline, wait list, backup, waiting line. procession, train, succession, progression, cavalcade, sequence, series. Line, row, column, file, chain, string, stream. ▲ Opposite of a line or sequence of people or things. Outside the United States it means a line of people or vehicles waiting their turn, so if your English friend talks about queuing up for the movies, that means getting in line for a ticket.
Queue comes from the Latin cauda, for tail. It was spelled cue, coe or even keue in Old French and only started being spelled queue in the 12th century.Ī queue is a line of things, usually people. Is the word queue French?įrench queue comes from Latin coda (also spelled cauda) which designated the appendage that prolongs the spinal column. “Cue” has a variety of meanings, but all uses of “queue” relate to its original French meaning of “tail,” which becomes a metaphor for a line (beware, however: in French queue is also rude slang for the male sex organ).
6 What does it mean if a download is “queued”?.