Meg-John Barker

knowledge as always partial and contextual.

The original meaning of “queer”, in 16th-century English-speaking countries, referred to something strange or illegitimate, as in “there’s nowt as queer as folk” or being “in queer street”, meaning someone having financial difficulties.
Using queer to mean odd, in the 19th century, social reformer and founder of the cooperative movement, Robert Owen, famously said to a colleague: “All the world is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer.”

in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. There’s also the American phrase “queer as a three dollar bill”, from a similar time, suggesting something odd and suspicious