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What is the difference between queue and enqueue given that both are verbs?

wassup
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1 Answers1

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According to this Merriam-Webster link, definition of 'Queue' as a verb is-

queue verb \ˈkyü\ : to form or wait in a line

transitive verb : to arrange or form in a queue

and

intransitive verb : to line up or wait in a queue —often used with up.

See below two examples of both forms of this usage of queue as a verb -

The World's Food Fair, Boston. October 1896. Admission: 25 cents. Huge crowds throng the Mechanics Hall convention center. Women queue up for free samples from 200 different vendors: cereals, gelatins, extracts, candy, and custards. —Christopher Kimball, Cook's Illustrated, January & February 2008

and

The crowd was queuing at the snack bar.

And now look at this definition of 'Enqueue' as a verb from the Oxford Dictionaries-

enqueue:

VERB (enqueues, enqueuing or enqueueing, enqueued)

[WITH OBJECT] Computing Add (an item of data awaiting processing) to a queue of such items.

While "queue" has a relatively broad usage as a verb(with reference to line up/create a line), "enqueue" is mostly used in computing(specifically- data structures).

Dust_In_The_Wind
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    So basically queue is normally intransitive, and enqueue is transitive. The only real context these days for putting something in a queue (transitive) is in computing. Your two examples before enqueue are both intransitive. – Andrew Leach Jul 26 '14 at 12:10
  • Yeah you're right. Most usage of "queue" as a transitive verb is in computing, ex- he queued his queries in the relevant order. – Dust_In_The_Wind Jul 26 '14 at 12:32
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    The ole -en and en- causative/inchoative affixes are not really productive in English any more, and it's common for words with them to either take a different meaning or fall out of use against a zero-derived form. They're a pretty irregular bunch of verbs by now. – John Lawler Jul 26 '14 at 17:19
  • @JohnLawler Does that mean that if I say "queue this item" meaning "put it into the queue to do later" I am formally ok? Or "enqueue" is required in such context because of verb transitivity? – Vladislav Rastrusny Nov 16 '17 at 15:33
  • The environments in which enqueue might be required would be so rare and unusual that they can be ignored. If you're discussing a particular academic field, enquire about usage from its native writers. – John Lawler Nov 16 '17 at 17:44
  • Many computing scenarios, often message queueing applications, specifically use enqueue, rather than queue (eg step 1 open connection, step 2 enqueue message etc). This may be in order to make it obviously distinct from the noun (a queue object) - ambiguity is bad in coding. (Example uses Twilio.com, Hangfire.io etc). – niico Sep 18 '18 at 08:14
  • https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/223180428-What-s-the-difference-between-Queue-and-Enqueue- – niico Sep 18 '18 at 08:15