queer
n. C / Un. a word for people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. While it was once an insult, many people now use it with pride to describe their own identity.
n. an umbrella term for sexual and gender minorities who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Historically used as a pejorative, it has been reclaimed by many within the community as a positive identity marker.
She studies queer history at the local university.
The festival provides a safe space for the queer community to celebrate their diverse identities and art.
Attested since about 1510, at first in Scots. Usually taken to be from Middle Low German (Brunswick dialect) queer (“oblique, off-center”) or the related German quer (“diagonal”), from Old Saxon thwerh, from Proto-West Germanic þwerh, from Proto-Germanic þwerhaz, from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to turn, twist, wind”); compare Latin torqueō, and see more at thwart. The OED argues against this due to the semantic differences and the date at which the word appears in Scots. Began to be used to describe gay people in the late 19th century, see usage notes for more.
Commonly used as a collective noun ('the queer community') or as a self-identifier; register varies significantly between reclaimed pride and historical slur.