- queue (n.)
- 15c., "tail of a beast" (heraldic term), from French queue "a tail," from Old French cue "tail," from Latin coda (dialectal variant of cauda) "tail," of unknown origin. The Middle English metaphoric extension to "line of dancers" led to extended sense of "line of people, etc." (1837). Also used 18c. in sense of "braid of hair" (first attested 1748).
- queue (v.)
- "to stand in a line," 1927 (implied in queuing), from queue (n.). Related: Queued; queueing. Churchill is said to have coined Queuetopia (1950), to describe Britain under Labour or Socialist rule.