GAY Meang: "full of joy, merry; light-hearted, reee;" also "wanton, lewd, lasciv" (late 12c. as a surname,… See orig and meang of gay.
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GAY (ADJ.)
* gay etymology and history *
Gay (adj. As a surname, Philipp Gay), om Old French gai "joyful, happy; pleasant, agreeably charmg; forward, pert; light-lored" (12c. ; pare Old Spanish gayo, Portugue ga, Italian gajo, probably French loan-words).
)) word gay by the 1890s had an overall tge of promiscuy — a gay hoe was a brothel.
The suggtn of immoraly the word n be traced back at least to the 1630s, if not to Chcer:But oure bed he was so sh and gay. Whan that he wol han my bele slang meang "homosexual" (adj.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
) begs to appear psychologil wrg the late 1940s, evintly picked up om gay slang and not always easily distguished om the olr sense:After discharge A. He was not happy at the farm and went to a Wtern cy where he associated wh a homosexual crowd, beg "gay, " and wearg female cloth and makp.
240]The associatn wh (male) homosexualy likely got a boost om the term gay t, ed as far back as 1893 Amerin English for "young hobo, " one who is new on the road, also one who sometim do jobs. "A Gay Cat, " said he, "is a loafg laborer, who works maybe a week, gets his wag and vagabonds about huntg for another 'pick and shovel' job. Do you want to know where they got their moni (nickname) 'Gay Cat'?