Q

This article is about the Latin alphabet letter. For other uses, see Q (disambiguation).

The letter Q is the seventeenth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is cue, occasionally spelled cu (both pronounced /kju/).

History

Egyptian hieroglyph wj	Phoenician Q	Etruscan Q	Greek Qoppa

The Semitic sound value of Qôp (perhaps originally qaw cord, and possibly based on an Egyptian hieroglyph) was /q/ (voiceless uvular plosive), a sound common to Semitic languages, but not found in English or most Indo-European ones. In Greek, this sign as Qoppa Ϙ probably came to represent several labialized velar plosives, among them /kʷ/ and /kʷʰ/. As a result of later sound shifts, these sounds in Greek changed to /p/ and /pʰ/ respectively. Therefore, Qoppa was transformed into two letters: Qoppa, which stood for a number only, and Phi Φ which stood for the aspirated sound /pʰ/ that came to be pronounced /f/ in Modern Greek. The Etruscans used Q only in conjunction with V to represent /kʷ/.

Usage

In most modern western languages written in Latin script, such as in Romance and Germanic languages, Q appears almost exclusively in the digraph QU, though see: Q without U. In English this digraph most often denotes the cluster /kw/, except in borrowings from French where it represents /k/ as in plaque. In Italian qu represents [kw] (where [w] is an allophone of /u/); in German, /kv/; and in French, Portuguese language, Occitan, Spanish, and Catalan, /k/. (In Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Occitan and French, qu replaces c for /k/ before front vowels i and e, since in those contexts c is a fricative and letter 'k' is seldom used outside loan words.) In the Aymara, Azeri, Uzbek, Quechua, and Tatar languages, Q is a voiceless uvular plosive. [q] is also used in IPA for the voiceless uvular plosive, as well as in most transliteration schemes of Semitic languages for the "emphatic" qōp sound.

In Maltese and Võro, Q denotes the glottal stop.

In Chinese Hanyu Pinyin and Albanian, Q is used to represent the sound [tɕʰ], which is close to English "ch" in "cheese".

Q is rarely seen in a word without a U next to it, thus making it the second most rarely used letter in the English Language

The lowercase Q is usually written as a lowercase O with a line below it, with or without a "tail". It is usually typed without due to the major difference between the tails of the lowercase G and lowercase Q. It is usually written with the tail to distinguish from the G. Unlike the written lowercase G, which has a leftward facing tail, the Q's tail faces right.

Meanings for Q

• In aerodynamics, Q is the symbol for dynamic pressure, usually of interest at its peak known as Max Q.
• In astronomy,
  • Q stands for an August 16 through 31 discovery, in the provisional designation of a comet (e.g. C/2004 Q2, Comet Machholz) or asteroid (e.g. (4123) 1986 QP1).
  • q stands for the perihelion distance of an orbit (mostly for cometary orbits).
• In biblical criticism, Q is an abbreviation used by scholars of the New Testament to describe the Q document, a hypothetical lost written "source" (German, Quelle, hence, Q) behind the Synoptic Gospels.
• In biochemistry:
  • Q is the symbol for glutamine.
  • Q is the abbreviation for ubiquinone, also known as Coenzyme Q.
• In chemistry, Q is a symbol for the reaction quotient.
• In chess, Q is a notation symbol for the queen piece
• In computing:
  • Q is an "equational programming language"; see Q programming language.
  • Q is the runtime component of the QSDK.
  • Q is a Mac OS X emulator of a multitude of operating systems, including Windows; see Q (emulator).
  • <q></q> is an HTML element used to indicate that a given string is a quotation.
• In cosmology, q is the symbol for the deceleration parameter.
• In electrical engineering:
  • Q is a symbol for characterizing electronic filters and other resonant systems; see Q factor. Q stands for quality.
  • Q represents electric charge, as in physics.
  • In QAM modulation schemes, Q is used to refer to the quadrature communications channel.
    • In the YIQ colorspace commonly used with the NTSC television encoding scheme, q is the color-difference channel which is in quadrature with the subcarrier.
• In English, Q can be an abbreviation for 'question', as in Q&A and FAQ.
• In finance, Q is the U.S. ticker symbol for Qwest Communications International Inc.
• In laser physics, Q is quality-factor
• In international licence plate codes, Q stands for Qatar.
• In Financial economics q stands for Tobin's-q.
• In marketing, Q is sometimes used as a synonym for Q Score
• In mathematics, blackboard bold $\mathbb {Q}$ denotes the set of all rational numbers, while q is sometimes used as a variable standing for a single arbitrary prime number that is somehow larger than a prime number p. For example, $q=2p+1$ and $2\leq p<q$.
  • In Mathematica, the Q in a command of the form PropertyQ[argument] means that the built-in function is a Boolean function that tests whether or not the argument has the named property. For example, IntegerQ[4] and PrimeQ[7] are both true. Some users use this convention for custom functions they create, for example, eisensteinIntegerQ[4 + 7ω] and safePrimeQ[47].
• In mechanical engineering and civil engineering, Q is the symbol for volumetric flow rate.
• In medicine, Q is a bacterial infection; see Q fever. "q" also is a medical abbreviation for every, often used to specify drug dosing schedules (e.g., q6h indicates every 6 hours; q4w indicates 4 times per week).
• In military science, Q is the name for anti-submarine ships; see Q-ship.
• In mobile phones, Q is the name of one of Motorola's smartphones, the Motorola Q.
• In phonetics, lowercase [q] is the International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for the voiceless uvular plosive.
• In physics, q (lowercase) is a symbol for electric charge or heat.
• In fusion power, Q is the symbol for the fusion energy gain factor
• In a deck of playing cards, Q is used to mark each of the queens.
• In publishing, Q is a British music magazine; see Q magazine
• In radiotelegraphy and amateur radio, the Q code is a set of three-letter code signals.
• In Scientology, Q refers to a "common denominator" of subsidiary information which forms a "pyramid of data" (from Scientology 0-8).
• In statistics, the Q Test helps in the decision to retain or discard questionable datum.
• In Taiwan Mandarin or Taiwanese language, Q means "flexible." especially for food (the Roman letter is used).
• In television, Q TV is a music video channel from the same people who produce Q magazine.
• In economics, Q is usually used to represent quantity.
• Q is an acronym for queue, which some people think is the letter's name.
• Q is an acronym for "queer", an appropriation of the historically pejorative word, now used neutrally or positively by those who strongly reject traditional gender identities.
• Q is another name of the Panasonic Q multimedia console, a hybrid of a DVD player and a GameCube.
• Q is the nickname for Quentin Richardson.
• Q is the commonly used abbreviation for the Greek telecom operator Q-telecom
• Q is an IRC-service (bot) on the popular IRC-network QuakeNet.
• In recent years Q has adopted the meaning of everything, and nothing at the same time. When someone asks what time it is you can just say "Q"
• Again in recent years, A school in Vancouver BC has come up with the Q button for gamers, when someone doesn't know what to do, just say "press the Q button"

In entertainment

• In music, Q is a three piece rock band from London, UK; see Q (the band).
• In film, Q is a character in the James Bond series; see Q (James Bond).
• In science fiction, Q is a character from the Q Continuum (also referred to as "the Q"), originally played by John de Lancie in several Star Trek spin-off series; see Q (Star Trek).
• In British television, Q is a character (Nancy "Q" Cunard de Longchamps) portrayed by Rula Lenska from the BBC series the Rock Follies.
• In literature,
  • Q is the title of a historical novel by Luther Blissett; see Q (novel).
  • Q is the pen name of writer Arthur Quiller-Couch.
  • Q is the nickname of writer Ilya Kutuzov.
  • Q is the nickname of entertainment impresario Quincy Jones.
  • Q is the leading character in the famous Chinese novel The True Story of Ah Q by Lu Xun. Because of this novel, "Ah Q" in China means someone who always claims spiritual victory despite frequent defeat.
• In video games, Q is a character in Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games.
• Q was the name for a number of comedy series written by and starring Spike Milligan
• Q is a 1983 movie about Quetzalcoatl in Manhattan

Trivia

• Q is the only letter that does not appear in any US state name
• People connected to an IRC-network with usermode +q are immune to bans, kicks and akicks.

See also

• List of English words containing Q not followed by U