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Quad. _See_ QUOD. .
Quaker . a lump of excrement.
Quality . gentry, the upper classes.
Quandary . described in the dictionaries as a “low word,” may fittingly be given here. It illustrates, like “hocus-pocus,” and other compound colloquialisms, the singular origin of slang expressions. QUANDARY, a dilemma, a doubt, a difficulty, is from the French, QU’EN DIRAI-JE?—_Skinner._
Quartereen . a farthing.—_Gibraltar term._ _Italian_, QUATTRINO.
Quaver . a musician.
Quean . a strumpet. In Scotland, a lower-class woman. _Saxon_, CWEAN, a barren old cow.
Queen Bess . the Queen of Clubs,—perhaps because that queen, history says, was of a swarthy complexion.—_North Hants._ _See Gentleman’s Magazine for 1791_, p. 141.
Queen’s tobacco-pipe . the kiln in which all contraband tobacco seized by the Custom-house officers is burned.
Queer . an old cant word, once in continual use as a prefix, signifying base, roguish, or worthless,—the opposite of RUM, which signified good and genuine. QUEER, in all probability, is immediately derived from the cant language. It has been mooted that it came into use from a _quære_ (?) being set before a man’s name; but it is more than probable that it was brought into this country, by the gipsies, from Germany, where QUER signifies “cross” or “crooked.” At all events it is believed to have been first used in England as a cant word.
Queer . “to QUEER a flat,” to puzzle or confound a “gull,” or silly fellow.
Queer bail . worthless persons who for a consideration formerly stood bail for any one in court. Insolvent Jews generally performed this office, which gave rise to the term JEW-BAIL, otherwise STRAW BAIL.
Queer cuffen . a justice of the peace, or magistrate,—a very ancient term, mentioned in the earliest slang dictionary. In this sense, as well as in that of the verb just given, the term is evidently derived from _quæro_, to inquire, to question. Quiz and _quis?_ have also an undoubted connexion.
Queer-bit-makers . coiners.
Queer-soft . bad notes.
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