Lines of people or things waiting in order, or data structures following first-in-first-out principle.
From French queue meaning 'tail', from Latin coda/cauda 'tail'. The sense of 'waiting line' developed from the idea of people lining up tail-to-head like animals. In computing, the metaphor extends to data waiting to be processed.
The British obsession with proper queuing is legendary, but the word itself reveals something profound about human organization - we conceptualized orderly waiting by imagining ourselves as animals lined up tail-to-head. It's both civilized and charmingly animalistic!
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