by Anatoly Liberman The qutn about the orig of gay “homosexual” has been asked and answered many tim (and always rrectly), so that we needn’t expect sensatnal disveri this area. The adjective gay, first attted Middle English, is of French scent; the fourteenth century meant both “joyo” and “bright; showy.” The OED giv no atttatns of gay “immoral” before 1637.
Contents:
- GAY (ADJ.)
- GAY
- THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’
- JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
- DO THE WORD FASCIST SHARE A ROOT WH THE ANTI-GAY SLUR F****T?
- ARE ENGLISH 'GAY' AND NORWEGIAN 'GøY' GNAT?
- GAY ROOTS. AN ANTHOLOGY OF GAY HISTORY, SEX, POLICS, AND CULTURE
GAY (ADJ.)
GAY Meang: "full of joy, merry; light-hearted, reee;" also "wanton, lewd, lasciv" (late 12c. as a surname,… See orig and meang of gay. * gay root of the word *
) 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.
GAY
* gay root of the word *
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.
Gay ts were severely and celly abed by "real" tramps and bums, who nsired them "an ferr orr of begs who begs of and otherwise preys upon the bum — as were a jackal followg up the kg of beasts" [Prof. McCook, "Tramps, " "The Public Treatment of Pperism, " 1893], but some acunts report certa olr tramps would domate a gay t and employ him as a sort of slave.
THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’
Kev Maxen, an associate strength ach wh the Jacksonville Jaguars, has bee the first male ach a major U.S.-based profsnal league to e out as gay. * gay root of the word *
In "Soclogy and Social Rearch" (1932-33) a paragraph on the "gay t" phenomenon not, "Homosexual practic are more mon than rare this group, " and gey t "homosexual boy" is attted Noel Erske's 1933 dictnary of "Unrworld & Prison Slang" (gey is a Sttish variant of gay) "Dictnary of Amerin Slang" reports that gay (adj. Rawson ["Wicked Words"] not a male prostute g gay reference to male homosexuals (but also to female prostut) London's notor Cleveland Street Sndal of 1889. Ayto ["20th Century Words"] lls attentn to the ambiguo e of the word the 1868 song "The Gay Young Clerk the Dry Goods Store, " by U.
[John Boswell, "Christiany, Social Tolerance, and Homosexualy, " 1980]As a teen slang word meang "bad, ferr, unsirable, " whout reference to sexualy, om (n.
JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
We round up the 10 hottt new beki terms that will make your gay iends proud to ll you "bh". * gay root of the word *
Chaddock's translatn of Krafft-Ebg's "Psychopathia Sexualis, " om German homosexual, homosexuale (by 1880, Gtav Jäger), om Greek homos "same" (see homo- (1)) + Lat-based sexual. Havelock Ellis, "Studi Psychology, " 1897]Sexual versn (1883, later simply versn, by 1895) was an earlier clil term for "homosexualy" English, said by Ellis to have origated Italian psychology wrg. 2)"male homosexual, " 1914, Amerin English slang, probably om earlier ntemptuo term for "woman" (1590s), pecially an old and unpleasant one, reference to faggot (n.
3, 1889]Other obsolete Brish sens of faggot were "man hired to ary service merely to fill out the ranks at mter" (1700) and "vote manufactured for party purpos" (1817) explanatn that male homosexuals were lled faggots bee they were burned at the stake as punishment is an etymologil urban legend. Burng sometim was a punishment meted out to homosexuals Christian Europe (on the suggtn of the Biblil fate of Sodom and Gomorrah), but England, where parliament had ma homosexualy a pal offense 1533, hangg was the method prcribed.
DO THE WORD FASCIST SHARE A ROOT WH THE ANTI-GAY SLUR F****T?
Use of faggot nnectn wh public executns had long been obscure English historil trivia by the time the word began to be ed for "male homosexual" 20th century Amerin slang, whereas the ntemptuo slang word for "woman" ( mon wh the other possible sourc or fluenc listed here) was active e early 20c., by D. This early existence is as a slang and self-intifyg word among homosexuals, only enterg the mastream of English the late 1960s. Perhaps the most monly touted one is that the morn e of gay om a clippg of gayt, a slang term among hobos and erants meang a boy or young man who acpani an olr, more experienced tramp, wh the implitn of sexual favors beg exchanged for protectn and stctn.
The term was often ed disparaggly and dat to at least 1893, when appears the November issue of Century magaze:The gay-ts are men who will work for “very good money, ” and are ually the Wt the tumn to take advantage of the high wag offered to laborers durg the harvt disparagg sense n be seen this catn om the 10 Augt 1895 issue of Harper’s Weekly:The hobo is an exceedgly proud fellow, and if you want to offend him, ll him a “gay t” or a “poke-outer. ”And om Jack London’s The Road, published 1907, but this passage is a reference to 1892:In a more faiar parlance, gay-ts are short-horns, chechaquos, new chums, or tenrfeet.
ARE ENGLISH 'GAY' AND NORWEGIAN 'GøY' GNAT?
A gay-t is a newer on The Road who is man-grown, or, at least, send possible explanatn is that the homosexual sense is an outgrowth of an earlier sense of gay meang addicted to pleasure, self-dulgent, or immoral. This sense dat to at least 1597 when appears John Payne’s Royall Exchange:Sum gay profsors (kepge secret mns) do love there wyu […] to avoy the early 20th century, the phrase “to go gay” was e, meang to adopt a hedonistic liftyle. 1795:Those bulli who live upon whor of fashn, affect the drs and airs of men of rank and fortune, and by stttg ocsnally by the si of a gay lady, add a nsequence to her and themselv, and duce the ignorant cully to thk that miss nfers her favours on gentlemen om Mary Robson’s 1799 The False Friend:“That’s not my bs, ” replied the bailiff.
GAY ROOTS. AN ANTHOLOGY OF GAY HISTORY, SEX, POLICS, AND CULTURE
The lyrics do not explicly lk the word wh homosexualy, but they n be terpreted that way, pecially if sung by a man drag:It’s about a chap, perhaps you know, I’m told he is ‘Nobody’s be, ’But maybe you all knew that before, He’s a lively clerk a Dry-Goods Store.
Augt Dolph is his name, From Skiddy-ma-dk they say he me, He’s a handsome man and he’s proud and poor, This gay young clerk the Dry-Goods ’s easy to dismiss the homosexual implitns the song as a 21st century reterpretatn of a mid-19th century song, but the ia of the effemate store clerk was a popular subject of parody the 1860s. I love to loaf and lie about we nnot say wh certaty that Hays’s e of gay was tend to imply homosexualy, the parodic in of the effemate store clerk and the lk to Whman’s homosexualy is tantalizg.
It is uncerta, however, if Ste’s e of gay this se is a reference to lbianism or to the nventnal sense of gay meang happy:They, they learned ltle thgs that are thgs beg gay,.. Swoong wh as we are the reasonFor the “Neti” beg gay, We all wear a green penultimate le refers to the 1890s, which were monly lled the gay neti.