The history of the word “gay” | The Gayly

Contents:

• GAY
• GAY (ADJ.)
• MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH
• SYNONYMS OF 'GAY' BRISH ENGLISH
• DEFN OF 'GAY'
• THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’
• WORDS WH GAY
• THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”

GAY

That same year, Pieters beme a natnal spokperson for AIDS awarens and gay polil activism after his historic terview wh televangelist Tammy Faye on her broadst, which fied the work's homophobic tennci. Rapoe, who is gay, is an outspoken advote for LGBTQ+ rights and was a lear the natnal team’s fight for genr equaly, which paid off last year when U. Jenna Lyons, the first openly gay hoewife, and Jsel Taank, the first Indian hoewife, jo the diverse st tend to better reprent all of the different kds of New Yorkers.

As a surname, Philipp Gay), om Old French gai "joyful, happy; pleasant, agreeably charmg; forward, pert; light-lored" (12c. 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. ) 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.

GAY (ADJ.)

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. 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.

"Gay" (or "gai") is now wily ed French, Dutch, Danish, Japane, Swedish, and Catalan wh the same sense as the English.

MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH

[John Boswell, "Christiany, Social Tolerance, and Homosexualy, " 1980]As a teen slang word meang "bad, ferr, unsirable, " whout reference to sexualy, om (n. In Middle English meant "excellent person, noble lady, gallant knight, " also "somethg gay or bright; an ornament or badge" (c. Pri, formerly known as Gay Pri, is a regnn of LGBTQ inty, affirmatn of equal rights, and celebratn of visibily, digny, and diversy the LGBTQ muny.

While the word homosexual is still ocsnally ed some ntexts, you might have noticed that don’t make an appearance any versn of the LGBTQ acronym. As our age note on the term stat, “up until 1973, homosexualy was listed The Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM), psychiatry’s standard reference on the classifitn of mental illns. And many feel that this word plac undue emphasis on sexual activy, or that sounds overly clil.” In fact, the term homosexual was liberately rejected by early gay rights activists bee, acrdg to The New York Tim, “they did not want to be intified as exclively sexual begs.”.

Gay, on the other hand, n be ed to scribe a person of any genr who experienc same-sex attractn, although is most often ed to scribe a man who is attracted to men.

SYNONYMS OF 'GAY' BRISH ENGLISH

On June 28, 1969, the New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn, a bar equented by gay and genr-nonnformg people (at a time when terms like LGBTQ didn’t yet exist).

Partially rponse to Stonewall, 1970, queer activists New York Cy anized a march to Central Park wh the theme “Gay Pri.” A more prehensive history of the Stonewall Rt or the Stonewall Uprisg n be found our Pri Month explaer.

Queer lerally means “strange or odd om a nventnal viewpot,” and by at least by the late 1800s, queer was ployed as a rogatory term for an effemate or gay man. () Wh a transgenr woman  Congrs and the immense populary of shows like Queer Eye and RuPl's Drag Race, gay culture is currently at the foreont of mastream Filipo nscns a way has never been before. Provg jt how funny the evolutn of language n be, achoo is the newt eratn of the classic beki term "pamta, " which refers to gay men who seem like they're straight.

DEFN OF 'GAY'

Adjective, gay·er, gay·, relatg to, or beg a person who is sexually or romantilly attracted to people of their own sex or genr: A gay uple strolled by on the, relatg to, or beg a person who is sexually or romantilly attracted only to people of their own sex or genr: Gay and bisexual men are both discsed this, ditg, or supportg terts or issu pertag to gay people or the gay muny: He giv charable ntributns to a gay anizatn.

(ed pecially of women and pecially poetry) betiful, lofty, noble, or excellent: The learned man hath got the lady gay. Sexually unrtraed; havg loose morals: In the 1930s movie, the baron is referred to as “a gay old rogue wh an eye for the ladi. Appropriately forward or bold; overly faiar; reckls: Gee got gay at the Christmas party and sudnly swept his boss's wife onto the dance floor.

A person, pecially a man, who is sexually or romantilly attracted exclively to people of the same sex or of gay1First rerd 1275–1325; Middle English gai, om Old French “happy, cheerful, ” om Germanic; pare Old High German gāhi “fast, sudn”age alert For gayThe sexual orientatn meang of the word gay has bee so predomant that people hate to e the term s origal sens of “merry, lively” and “bright or showy. After World War II, as social attus toward sexualy began to change, gay was applied openly by gay men to themselv, first as an adjective and later as a noun.

THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’

It has been argued that gay the sense “awkward, stupid, or bad” is pennt of the sexual sense, and therefore not homophobic.

This argument is weakened by the fact that the sexual meang has long been the domant one, and th permeat all ag of gay. Age note For gayWords like gay and lbian are often ed as umbrella terms scribg anyone who experienc same-genr attractn, and also as more specific labels. Umbrella age, as gay marriage or lbian uple, typilly refers to any same-genr pairg, or to any person who is attracted to people of their own genr.

As more specific labels, gay and lbian often mean exclive attractn to the same genr, and may be ed ntrast wh terms like bisexual. And gay n also be ed to refer to only men who are attracted to men (exclively or not), ntrast to lbian, which only refers to women. Other words om gaygay·ns, nounnon·gay, adjectiveWords Nearby gaygawkgawkygawpGawragawsygayGayagayalGaya MaretangayatrigaydarOther fns for Gay (2 of 2)nounJohn, 1685–1732, English poet and dramatist.

WORDS WH GAY

2023How to e gay a sentence“I do not support gay marriag beg regnized Florida, ” he wrote Andrew Walther of man was Xavier Cortada, a gay man who wrote of his tratn that he and his partner of eight years were unable to gay apps, like the newer Mister, have not subscribed to the muny/tribe mol.

THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”

Meanwhile, Florida, Bh was flood wh qutns about whether gay marriage uld possibly e to the Sunshe the 70s, this myth kept openly gay people out of teachg I not France—gay, lightful France—partakg of the kdns and civily of the untry? After a moment's silence, the valiers both burst to a gay had Tom seen his gay and rels such guise: he was rtls, silent, tense and had not been for the prence of Mamoiselle Stéphanie, would not have been gay for box of the diplomatic rps was jt oppose , and our gay ltle Mrs.

Brish Dictnary fns for gay (1 of 2)adjectivehomosexualof or for homosexuals: a gay clubreee and merry: a gay temperamentbrightly loured; brilliant: a gay hatgiven to pleasure, p social entertament: a gay lifeOrig of gay1C13: om Old French gai, om Old Provençal, of Germanic origage For gayGayns is the word ed to refer to homosexualy. The noun which refers to beg reee and merry is gaietyDerived forms of gaygayns, nounBrish Dictnary fns for Gay (2 of 2)nounJohn. Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Cultural fns for gayDcriptive term for New Dictnary of Cultural Leracy, Third Edn.

)In recent years, however, this tradnal sense of gay has been driven out of the language by the newer sense meang homosexual.

Many believe this new sense of gay to be que recent, when fact dat at least to the 1920s and perhaps even earlier. 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. 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.