Eggcorn Forum

We have seen “q” for “cue” mentioned here, but not “q” for “queue”—until now.

While on pilgrimage – do not try to jump the Q line – follow the line.
http://www.quora.com/Life/What-are-some … fe-one-day

Stumbling upon that one inspired me to do a Google search. I found close to four dozen examples, such as:

Prepare to know you could be standing in a q for more than 30mins.
http://youbeautie.com/?paged=2

it is expensive but can be a bit more of a day out than just standing in a q for hours on end.
http://www.rollercoaster.ie/Discussions … fault.aspx

...I had problems collecting or rather not collecting a daily mirror free gift I was left standing in a q while some idiot went walkabout…
http://www.valueireland.com/2009/07/mor … tocom=1250

@Zatchels #win #lfw needs a treat after standing in a q for silly Xbox game
http://seen.co/event/london-fashion-wee … 0:00%20UTC

Admittedly, in that last example, “q” could have been used on purpose as “textese”, given that it’s in a tweet. But it seems we may have an aggcorn here—if we’re willing to call something an eggcorn in a situation wherein the perp had no real meaning connection in mind but just wrote his/her misunderstanding down and assumed it must mean something relevant. The last I knew, the issue of whether or not to call such things eggcorns was still under discussion here.

I then decided to see if the q/queue confusion extended to “queue” in the sense of a Chinese guy’s braid. Googling “Chinaman’s q” yielded:

I guess it ’s custom, like the Chinaman’s Q.
http://books.google.com/books?id=53VNAA … 22&f=false

I think you are following Chinaman’s q (but that’s established already, right) and letting your own impulse dictate what you want to delete or not.
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22stan … S:official
(This one seems actually to be a substitution of “q” for “cue”, with the Chinaman reference being merely coincidental.)

And, surprisingly, a Chinese heritage website has a whole page about the “Q”, on which they refer to the traditional braid by that term throughout:
http://chinese-heritage.tripod.com/The_Q.htm

I forget who it is here that’s keeping a list of eggcorns involving acronyms and single letters, but this may be another one for your list.