The Queue, with a capital Q, is the line of mourners waiting to walk past Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin while she lies in state in the Palace of Westminster. It’s very long, stretching for hours throughout London, hundreds of thousands of mourners weaving along the banks of the Thames. The mother of all queues. The Queue.

It occurs to me that “Queen” and “Queue” share many of the same letters, which suggests that the portmanteau treatment may be called for.

On further reflection I have given up, but not before evaluating the options with passionate intensity for far longer than I (or anybody) needed to.

The Queuen. “KEW-en” or “KWEW-en”. Nice and stately. Preserves the spelling of Queue, and still contains all the letters of Queen in sequence. Pronunciation not readily apparent. I give it four stars.

The Queenue. “KWEEN-yew.” Includes the word Queen. Kind of looks like “Queenie”. Also looks like it could rhyme with “venue”. “KWEN-yew”. An uncoördinated mishmash of suggestions. I give it three stars.

The Queenueue. Also “KWEEN-yew.” This word will titillate lovers both of length (9 letters) and of vowel density (78 percent). Hard to say with a straight face, but then again, so are all the others. I give it three and a half stars.

The Queun. “KEWN”. This one wins on economy. By shape, at once suggestive of Queue and Queen. Short and dignified. I almost awarded this four stars, but I adjust to three and a half because it still looks undefinably off. Perhaps it’s the missing e from both of its root words.

Alternative spelling Queune restores the extra e, preserving the letters of Queue in sequence but rather mangling Queen. I give it two and a half stars.

The Queeue. “KWEE-yew”. Bold! This one forgoes the n of Queen, relying on the Quee to suggest the female royalty, which it still does admirably. Even more impressively, it packs in five consecutive vowels! Ueeue! Ueeue! I give it four and a half stars.

The Queeuen. “KWEE-yewn.” Now this one’s just a mess. We try to restore the n to complete Queen, and instead we end up with an uninspired jumble that manages to dampen the vivacity of its greatest asset, the Ueeue, while failing to do justice to the Queen. Perhaps it’s that a final n incorrectly suggests “Queen of the Queue” rather than “Queue of the Queen”, which may have been a consideration which also subconsciously played into the evaluation of Queun and Queuen. How delicate the art of wordsmithery! I give it two stars.