Q

the seventeenth letter of the English alphabet, has but one sound, which is the same as that of k, or c hard. It is, therefore, a superfluous letter. In English, it never ends a word, as it does in French and some other modern languages. It is always followed by u, the two letters together being pronounced like kw, except in some words in which the u is silent; as, quake, quack, pique, pronounced kwake, kwack, peek. In the Anglo-Saxon, this letter is not used, cu, or, more generally, cw, being employed instead of it; as in cwic, quick; cwën, queen. For qu in English, the Dutch use kw, the Germans qu, the Swedes and the Danes qv, which answer to our kw. The Gothic has a character which answers to qu. The English name of the letter, cue, is said to be from the French queue, a tail, the form being the same as that of O, with a tail added. Some, however, regard the form as a contraction of cv or cu. See Principles of Pronunciation, § 86.