Geoff Pullum (after droppg the bombshell that he's movg to Edburgh) recently wrote about the mayor of Wt Sacramento's announcement that he "want[s] to start thkg of gay as a verb and not jt a noun". Pullum, himself no slouch...
Contents:
MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH
gay fn: 1. sexually or romantilly attracted to people of the same genr and not to people of a different…. Learn more. * gay as a verb *
Women are also more likely to embrace environmental , while men tend to view habs like brgg a rsable bag to the grocery store as gay or emasculatg. Robson was an openly gay sger-songwrer who performed unr the name Jonty Dream, his iend Tenille Clarke wrote for Brish Vogue. From Middle English gay, om Old French gai (“joyful, lghg, merry”), ually thought to be a borrowg of Old Occan gai (“impetuo, lively”), om Gothic *?????? (*gaheis, “impetuo”), mergg wh earlier Old French jai ("merry"; see jay), om Frankish *gāhi;[1] both om Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudn”).
The sense of homosexual (first rerd no later than 1937 by Cary Grant the film Brgg Up Baby, and possibly earlier 1922 the poem "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" by Gert Ste[6][7]) was shortened om earlier gay t ("homosexual boy") unrworld and prison slang, self first attted about 1935, but ed earlier for a young tramp or hobo attached to an olr one. 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.
GAY
Gay is a word wh many meangs. A gay person is homosexual, but if we scribe somethg like a scene or a party as gay, that means 's bright, merry, and happy. * gay as a verb *
2003, Michael McAvennie, The World Wrtlg Entertament Yearbook:She uldn't even ga accs om a fay iend whose name was on the list, nor uld she e her feme charms to turn on the staff member, who revealed he was gay and was more imprsed seeg Billy and Chuck enter the buildg.
2005, Mark Caldwell, New York Night, page 133:Of the dozen or so survivg articl, squibs, and letters to the edor, the most remarkable appeared the Whip and Satirist’s Febary 12, 1842, issue, and disclosed the existence of a bal of gay men New York's otherwise wholome nightspe of brothels and rts. Among the syndite of perverts, the wrer announced, "we fd no Amerins as yet—they are all Englishmen or French" (the English lled homosexualy the French vice and the French the English vice; for the Whip was the French and English vice).
The two failed attempts to receive the necsary accs to medilized transn procr by the renowned FTM activist Lou Sullivan—a gay man who refed to ply wh the imperative that transsexual men mt sire women— […].
AM I GAY?
* gay as a verb *
2009, Betty Jean Lifton, Lost & Found: the Adoptn Experience, page 67:Her adoptive mother fated when Gail told her she was gay.
2010, Noėl Sturgeon, Environmentalism Popular Culture: Genr, Race, Sexualy, and the Polics of the Natural, page 128:In fact, as several letter wrers to the New York Tim poted out their rponse to the article, the disjuncture between the two popularized pengus shows how radilly separated om each other are muni of gay people and muni of right-wg relig nservativ: if the Christian fundamentalists had looked up "gay pengus" or even "pengus" on the Inter, they would have enuntered several gay pengu s, cludg the story of Roy and Silo, the Central Park Zoo gay pengu uple about whom a children's book was wrten; the saga of the gay pengu muny at a German zoo; and the mpaign of Gay Pengu for Print (whose slogan was "Gee W. Although the number of gay weddgs has creased signifintly, many gay and lbian upl — like many straight upl — are not terted gettg married.
SIGNS FOR GAY
Are you qutng your sexualy? Fd out if you’re gay, straight, bisexual, or asexual. Learn what the terms mean and if they apply to you. * gay as a verb *
1977, Charl Silverste; Edmund Whe, The Joy of Gay Sex, New York: Crown Publishers, →ISBN, page 162:Gays meet each other special-tert social groups—gay softball leagu, gay bike clubs, gay gymnasia, gay activist polil anizatns, the Gay Amic Unn (an anizatn for gay teachers, scholars and stunts), gay universy stunt clubs and so on. 2003, Lawrence Block, Small Town, page 269:He might well have spected Cheek was a gay bar whout seeg any of s patrons, simply bee was a neighborhood where most of the bars were gay, and bee you uldn't see the wdows. 2004, Mart Hugh; Sarah Johnstone; Tom Masters, London, page 208:Turn left to chilled-out Old Compton St and try to gus which bars are gay.
2010, Jay Mohr, No Wonr My Parents Drank: Tal om a Stand-Up Dad, page 252:Aga I was to masturbate to a cup and aga the majory of the porn was gay.
WHAT IS THE ADVERB FOR GAY?
Signs for GAY and some variatns sign language (ASL) and some more related signs the ASL dictnary app. * gay as a verb *
2014, Christopher Schaberg; Robert Bent, Denstctg Brad Pt, Bloomsbury Publishg USA, →ISBN, page 211:Beg gay for Brad, even a teensy b, is at the very least beg able to image the potential for queerns.
What's the adverb for gay? Here's the word you're lookg for. * gay as a verb *
In a sense, like the recent popular and cril furor over men who are gay-for-pay, beg gay for Brad is what Jefey Esffier f as "suatnal homosexualy, " or other forms of man-on-man behavr […] In other words, rather than worry over whether or not men who are queer for Brad n easily be labeled as straight or gay, […]. (loosely, of a person, pecially a man) Exhibg appearance or behavr that acrds wh stereotyp of gay people, pecially gay men. 2005, Jason Christopher Hartley, “October 23, 2004: This Is My Weapon, This Is My Gerber”, Jt Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground Iraq, HarperColls, published 2005, →ISBN, page 25:This cint has bee a source of much discsn, and the jury is still out on who is more gay: the guy who touched a dick or the guy who let a guy touch his dick.
1905, Barons Emmka Orczy, chapter 2, The Affair at the Novelty Theatre[7]:Miss Phyllis Man, as the hapls heroe drsed the shabbit of cloth, appears the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophis all and sundry there, cludg the villa, and has a magnificent scene which always brgs down the hoe, and nightly adds to her histrnic lrels. 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsir, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 252:The excement engenred by the cisn to die perked him right up; he had not felt so gay for ag.