[Peter Libra]

It often means physically ill,but can also mean a little bit crazy.

Very accurate assessment. I can go back in memory to the 1930's. I remember the saying was quite common in that a person was "feeling queer". I would presume it came from the fact that a person coming over sick,had a strange white faced look. Often not immediately responding, while they grappled with an awful feeling.

It was also used off hand, such as "queer state of affairs". One day finally the politically correct censors will come a "right cropper". This is if there is any justice left.

[AnAmericanMother]

One can hope.

I enjoy collecting interesting expressions. I read a lot of 19th c. British fiction and picked up the current slang, including some thieves' cant and tinkers' argot (mostly from George Borrow), but recently branched out and have had a wonderful time reading this little book:

Aussie slang is to say the least colorful, a great deal of it is of course English in origin.

[AnAmericanMother]

Btw, "coming a cropper" originated in the hunting field. Not because you squash some poor farmer's crops when you hit the ground (although I've done that too), but because if you're very behind the horse's leap, you just roll right back over his crupper (the tail or croup) and off onto the ground.

I have done that ONCE (I usually get too far forward and roll off over one shoulder or the other) and hope never to do it again. You land on your back and it knocks every ounce of wind out of you, as one of Kipling's fox-hunting characters said.

At least my horse very kindly came back for me. He was a good sort.