How did gay come to mean homosexual
Today I found out how ‘gay’ came to represent ‘homosexual’.
The word “gay” seems to have its origins around the 12th century in England, derived from the Old French synonyms ‘gai’, which in spin was probably derived from a Germanic word, though that isn’t completely known. The word’s original definition meant something to the effect of “joyful”, “carefree”, “full of mirth”, or “bright and showy”.
However, around the early parts of the 17th century, the word began to be associated with immorality. By the mid 17th century, according to an Oxford dictionary definition at the time, the meaning of the word had changed to mean “addicted to pleasures and dissipations. Often euphemistically: Of loose and immoral life”. This is an extension of one of the original meanings of “carefree”, meaning more or less uninhibited.
Fast-forward to the 19th century and the word gay referred to a woman who was a prostitute and a gay man was someone who slept with a lot of women (ironically enough), often prostitutes. Also at this moment, the phrase “gay it” meant t
It’s Pride Month and one of the most colourful words in the English language – with more makeovers than Madonna and more dramatic life stories than Liza Minnelli – is the word ‘gay’!
Like every hero, ‘gay’ has an origin story, but even today, scholars are in disagreement over the precise journey it took to reach the level of fame (or infamy) it commands nowadays. So, let’s piece together the history of this dramatic one-syllable and learn about the incredible historic events that shaped it into one of the most celebrated yet misunderstood three-letter words in the English language.
‘Gay’ was Germanic before it decided to travel all French and fancy
The prevailing theory is that ‘gay’ came from Aged Germanic, originally sounding prefer ‘gahi’, which meant ‘fast’ or ‘quick.’ ‘Gahi’ eventually became ‘jäh’ in contemporary German, meaning ‘abrupt’, ‘sudden’, ‘steep’ or ‘sheer’. Adorable fitting for a synonyms with so many sudden changes in meaning over the centuries.
From there, it somehow ended up creature borrowed by
“Gay” (Re: How did "gay" come to imply "homosexual"?)
John_W.Kennedy1
In re:How did “gay” come to represent “homosexual”?
“Since we are the reason for the 90s being gay,
We all wear a green carnation.”
— Noël Coward, Bitter Sweet, 1929
Wheelz2
Whether all male homosexuals would consent to be called gay — whether, for the matter, all gays would okay to be called gay — is a doubt I will not presume to answer.
I’d actually be more interested in how they feel about “gay” being used as a noun.
Not being snarky, I’m genuinely curious. It sounds a bit demeaning to my ears, but I’m not a gay, so what do I know?
Kolak_of_Twilo3
I’d actually be more interested in how they undergo about “gay” being used as a noun.
Not organism snarky, I’m genuinely curious. It sounds a bit demeaning to my ears, but I’m not a gay, so what execute I know?
I am one gay man who finds the use of the word as a noun to be annoying. To me it is an adjective.
psgoodguy4
up until the sdelayed 70’s we all called ourselves gay, men and women. the feminist movement empowered the women to own their own label and they began to demand that we operate
The History of the Synonyms 'Gay' and other Queerwords
Lesbians may have a longer linguistic history than gay men. Contrary to the incomplete information given in the OED, the word lesbian has meant “female homosexual” since at least the early eighteenth century. William King in his satire The Toast (published 1732, revised 1736), referred to “Lesbians” as women who “loved Women in the same Style as Men love them”. During that century, references to “Sapphic lovers” and “Sapphist” meant a chick who liked “her hold sex in a criminal way”. For centuries before that, comparing a lady to Sappho of Lesbos implied passions that were more than poetic.
Unfortunately we don’t know the origins of the most common queerwords that became popular during the 1930s through 1950s – gay, dyke, faggot, queer, fairy. Dyke, meaning butch queer woman , goes back to 1920s black American slang: bull-diker or bull-dagger. It might go back to the 1850s phrase “all diked out” or “all decked out”, meaning faultlessly dressed – in this case, like a man or “bull”. The word faggot goes back to 1914, when “faggots” and “fairies” were said to go to “drag balls”. Nels Anderson in
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