QO reefers to quarter ounce. I mean, ya know. I think, right?
QP – Quarter Pounder
The sandwich was created by Al Bernardin, a McDonald’s franchise owner in Fremont, California. Introduced in 1971, it proved to be such a success that it “went national” the next year, and was subsequently added to the menu in many countries. As viewers of the film Pulp Fiction know, the Quarter Pounder is sold under various names around the world.
QR = Quentin Reynolds, war journalist. In 1953, Reynolds was the victim of a major literary hoax when he published The Man Who Wouldn’t Talk, the supposedly true story of a Canadian war hero, George Dupre, who claimed to have been captured and tortured by German soldiers. When the hoax was exposed, Bennett Cerf, of Random House, Reynolds’s publisher, reclassified the book as fiction.
QQ – Quin Queeribus
Garden-loving protagonist of a humorous poem by Nancy Byrd Turner. Among other things, he bought “fine spectacles of gold” for the eyes of the potatoes he grew.
QS World University Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds.
QT - Most people agree that the phrase “on the QT” is simply an abbreviation of ‘quiet’, albeit a strange one, using the first and last letters. However, both the US and the UK claim first ownership of this phrase. US wordsmiths cite that country’s love of abbreviations, as evidenced by OK, PDQ and others, as evidence that ‘on the QT’ fell into this tradition.
The British claim comes via Robert Hendrickson, in The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins. Hendrickson says that ‘on the QT’ comes from a British ballad in 1870. However, this has been disputed as he provided no evidence for the claim.
QU - Not as inseparable as you may think…Two of the world’s leading international airlines begin with Q which is not followed by U: Qantas and Qatar.
QV, Whither goest thou, Lord. OK, that’d be QVD…
QW - the start of the top row of a standard keyboard. The Qwerty keyboard was first designed and used in the 1880s by Remington.
QX - the probability that a person aged x years will die before reaching age x+1. Also the IATA airline designator for Horizon Airlines.
QY - 4QY, a radio station that began broadcasting in 1950, now known as Radio ABC Far North
QZ – the TLD name for Quartz, an online magazine --can we go on to RA now?
RA - Romulus Augustulus: traditionally the last Roman Emperor in the west, who was deposed by Odoacer in AD 476. The Roman Empire in the east, at Constantinople, continued for another millennium.
RB – rhythm and blues, a type of music that grew out of the blues combined with harder, quicker rhythms.
RC – Royal Crown Cola, a favorite in my part of the world, a very long time ago.
RD - Reader’s Digest. According to Mediamark Research (2006), Reader’s Digest reaches more readers with household incomes of $100,000+ than Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Inc. combined.
RE - Regional-Express, a railway system in three European countries.
RF = République française. The inscription by which stamp collectors could recognize postage stamps from France.
RG = Right guards, a term used in American football for the guards on the right of the offensive line.
Rh - Rhodium, an element and metal, used in automotive catalytic converters