The Wikipedia definition: A lexicon, word-hoard, wordbook, or word-stock is the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language’s inventory of lexemes. The word lexicon derives from the Greek λεξικόν (lexikon), neuter of λεξικός (lexikos) meaning ‘of or for words’.

維基百科的定義：詞彙表（lexicon，又稱詞庫、詞典、詞彙集或語彙）是指個人、語言或某知識領域（如航海或醫學）所使用的全部詞彙。在語言學中，詞彙表是一種語言所擁有的詞位總匯。「lexicon」一詞源自古希臘語「λεξικόν」（lexikon），即形容詞「λεξικός」（lexikos，意為「與詞語相關的」）的中性形式。

The words being used, circulated, and invented by queer people are evidence of the life and languages of our communication and recognition of each other in several places depending on one’s migration as well as local contexts. The lexicon is not only a tool but also an archive of our queer threads from past to present.

The ideology and the emancipation of queer identity is often associated with Western contexts and institutions. How have Chinese-speaking people in diverse geographic regions, both in China and in the diaspora, started our own dialect of queer language? We aim for this lexicon to be built and read by queer individuals and communities starting from Hong Kong, and further to different Chinese-speaking people around the world.

Queer Reads Lexicon (earlier named Cantonese Queer Lexicon) was directly inspired by a Vietnamese edition of a queer lexicon called Chỉ Bàn Lộn (by Vagina Talks and illustrated by Nhat Vo, Luu An & Linh Tom), which we bought at the Singapore Art Book Fair in 2018. After reading it, we reflected on the words queer people in Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan use, and how they are at times mutually influential and also influenced by English colonization. So during May 2019 in Hong Kong, we invited roughly twenty queer folks from different disciplines and ages, all of whom were from our extended networks, for our first “Queer Lexicon” meeting/ workshop. We asked everyone to draw their mindmap of queer words they are familiar eith using. Those words became our first-hand material of the queer lexicon. The role of QRL is a living library of contemporary queer independent publications centered on queer Asian creatives, and we would like creating a lexicon to resonate with the library work we are doing (of circulating and collecting). We want to start from now and to trace back the local queer history of Hong Kong, all the way back to British colonial times.

《閱酷詞典》的靈感來源與誕生過程

直接啟發：越南版酷兒詞典《Chỉ Bàn Lộn》
《閱酷詞典》（最初名為《粵語酷兒詞典》）的靈感，直接源自2018年新加坡藝術書展上購入的一本越南酷兒詞典——《Chỉ Bàn Lộn》（由Vagina Talks策劃，插畫家Nhat Vo、Luu An與Linh Tom共同創作）。這本充滿草根活力的詞典，以插畫和俚語記錄越南酷兒的隱語與生存智慧，讓QRL團隊開始反思：「香港、中國大陸和台灣的酷兒如何用語言定義自己？這些詞彙如何彼此影響，又如何被英語殖民歷史所形塑？」**

2019年香港：首場「酷兒詞典工作坊」
2019年5月，QRL在香港召集了約20位來自不同領域、年齡層的酷兒，舉辦首場「酷兒詞典」聚會。工作坊中，參與者以mindmap形式，畫出自己熟悉的酷兒詞彙——從粵語粗口「基佬」的歷史脈絡，到台灣「拉子」如何被流行文化挪用，甚至探討「Lesbian」在中文語境中為何總被翻譯成醫療化的「女同性戀」。這些手繪的詞彙，成為詞典的第一手素材。

QRL的定位：不只圖書館，更是一座「活檔案」
作為一家專注於亞洲酷兒獨立出版的「活圖書館」（living library），QRL視詞典為館藏工作的延伸：

– 「流通」與「收集」的雙向行動：圖書館蒐集現有的酷兒文本，而詞典則主動「創造」未被書寫的語言，兩者皆致力於知識的循環與再生。 ｜

– 從當代回溯殖民歷史：詞典計畫試圖從當下香港酷兒的用語出發，逆向追溯至英國殖民時期，挖掘被主流歷史掩蓋的本地酷兒語言痕跡（例如港英時代如何用「兔仔」暗指男同志）。

為什麼這本詞典重要？
當《Chỉ Bàn Lộn》記錄了越南酷兒如何用「cắm sừng」（字面：插角，暗喻出軌）這類農耕隱語自嘲，QRL的詞典同樣在問：「粵語中的『基』『TB』『乸型』，承載了哪些殖民與本土交織的酷兒生存策略？」 這不僅是語言保存，更是一場對抗文化滅絕的微小革命。

（註：原文中的越南詞彙《Chỉ Bàn Lộn》書名保留不譯，因其中「lộn」在越南語有「翻轉／顛覆」之意，刻意呼應酷兒語言的顛覆性。）

The conventional lexicon is a collection of many words crossing a range of diverse general subjects. The queer lexicon is originally developed, written, and edited by queer people based on their first-hand lived experiences. We recognize that some terms in this lexicon may be outdated but we feel it is important to include queer terms that reflect the trajectory of how queer language has developed across generations.

「傳統詞典」收錄橫跨各類主題的廣泛詞彙，而「酷兒詞典」的內容最初由酷兒群體根據自身的第一手生活經驗所開發、撰寫與編輯。我們意識到，某些詞彙或許已不合時宜，但我們認為，收錄這些反映酷兒語言世代演變軌跡的詞彙，仍然至關重要。

We continue to gather words that we have collected ourselves and by our friends living in other places. Over the years, we have edited and designed them into zines. In 2021, our dear friends Teef Chan and J Wu of Mixed Rice Zines, helped design and print our very first lexicon zine on the occasion of WO MEN 2023: From Her to Here at the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco.

In 2023, QRL librarian Beatrix Pang edited and designed a new zine after two queer lexicon workshop hosted at Studio Voltaire in London.

我們持續蒐集來自自身及各地朋友提供的字詞。多年來，我們將這些內容編輯設計成小誌（zine）。2021年，我們好朋友Mixed Rice Zines的J Wu和Teef Chan，特別為QRL在舊金山中華文化中心「我們」展覽，協助設計及印製了首本的酷兒詞典小誌。

在2023年，QRL圖書館員Beatrix Pang在倫敦Studio Voltaire舉辦了兩次酷兒詞典工作坊後，重新編輯設計了新版小誌。