I remember queuing at The Beer Festival in Cambridge; I knew we were forming a tail. Not everyone did.And I remembered what George Mikes said: "An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one." And this is not all, as he elaborated further “In shops the English stand in queues; in government offices they sit in queues; in churches they kneel in queues; at sale times, they lie in queues all night.”
The English have been standing in queues at least since 1837 (when this meaning of the word is first recorded in English). It has been a while since 1837, but when they stand in queues they still do not realize they form a tail. I had asked a few
people and they were a bit surprised to find out they have been standing in a "tail of a beast" for so long without realising it.I can explain: the English word "queue" is borrowed from French, and so it is a descendant of Latin cōda, meaning “tail”.
In fact, in the 19th century a "line of dancers" was metaphorically extended. This led to the sense of "line of people, etc" that we use today. Anyway, an interesting thing to remember while standing in queues: you're forming a tail!
Nowadays the same word "queue" has a meaning in computer use too; if I only knew what it was...
3 comments:
in computer science there are queues and stacks : Queue = First in - First out while stacks are Last in - First out. In Romania, if you know some influent people or if you're slick enough, a queue can be easily turned into a stack ... in terms of serving :D
waiting is a drag.
i must spend a good 40% of my life waiting for something to happen.
lame
Many thanks Mr. Etherealm! Best compliment ever! You really think there's hope for me yet :))
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