queue up VS line up

[Polyester]

Please line up for buying Mcdonald.
Please queue up for buying Mcdonald.

Which one is more common in an English country?

 

[MikeNewYork]

We rarely use "queue" in the USA.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think people buy food at McDonald's instead of 'buying Mcdonald', but I am not a teacher.

 

[MikeNewYork]

That's true, Matthew.

 

[Eckaslike]

We rarely use "queue" in the USA.

We love to "queue" in the UK, and rarely "line up". ;-)

 

[Tdol]

I would use to buy McDonald's, not for buying.

 

[Tdol]

I think people buy food at McDonald's instead of 'buying Mcdonald', but I am not a teacher.

That's OK, but buy (a) MacDonald's works for me.

 

[Skrej]

To demonstrate how rarely 'queue' is used in AmE, I remember having to look it up in a dictionary the first time I ever saw it. I had no idea what it meant.

About the only time I see it in AmE is related to computers - for examples, documents pending in the printing queue.

 

[Raymott]

Yes, that's odd, given that most terminology comes out of America. You also have queues as abstract data types.

 

[SoothingDave]

I was going to make a similar comment about "print queues."

I have seen people in my company talk about pending work in their "que."

I think we Americans are so used to stripping off "-ue" from words (catalog, dialog, etc.) that they don't know when to stop!

 

[MikeNewYork]

I learned the word from my mother when we were playing Scrabble.

 

[Eckaslike]

Although we use it in BrE I must say I find it one of the most stupid words in English. Why quite that number of letters are needed to say such a short word is beyond me.

I'm sure some devious ancestor devised it simply to catch people out in spelling tests! However, in Scrabble the "q" alone is worth ten points, so it does have its uses after all.

 

[MikeNewYork]

It can be very useful in Scrabble.

 

[konungursvia]

Yes, that's odd, given that most terminology comes out of America. You also have queues as abstract data types.

In the US, a very large number of the most illustrious professors are actually European-educated.

 

[MikeNewYork]

That has not been my experience. What is a "very large number"? And what is an "illustrious professor"?

 

[Raymott]

I have seen people in my company talk about pending work in their "que."

Qué? No lo creo.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Even "que" woud be useful in Scrabble.

 

[tedmc]

"Que" is not a recognised word in Scrabble.
"Qi" and "qat" are.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I know that.

 

[Skrej]

Yes, that's odd, given that most terminology comes out of America. You also have queues as abstract data types.

I have a theory that it may have come from Indian English, what with the volumes of Indians contributing to the computer industry.

Certain things have to be named for reference, and those developing the stuff would be the ones to name it. Seems feasible that even if working abroad, one's natural vocabulary would work its way into your descriptions of a product.

Or perhaps somebody just found 'printing line' awkward and/or confusing, particularly since 'line' is commonly used in computer jargon to refer to lines of code.