by Jordan Redman Staff Wrer Do you know what the word gay really means? The word gay dat back to the 12th century and om the Old French “gai,” meang “full of joy or mirth.” It may also relate to the Old High German “gahi,” meang impulsive.
Contents:
- THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”
- GAY HISTORY: HOW ‘GAY’ CAME TO MEAN ‘HOMOSEXUAL’
- THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’
- GAYDAR (N.)
THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “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. * etymology term gay *
Today I found out how ‘gay’ me to mean ‘homosexual’. The word “gay” seems to have s origs around the 12th century England, rived om the Old French word ‘gai’, which turn was probably rived om a Germanic word, though that isn’t pletely known. Fast-forward to the 19th century and the word gay referred to a woman who was a prostute and a gay man was someone who slept wh a lot of women (ironilly enough), often prostut.
GAY HISTORY: HOW ‘GAY’ CAME TO MEAN ‘HOMOSEXUAL’
* etymology term gay *
Also at this time, the phrase “gay ” meant to have sex.
In terms of the sexual meang of the word, a “gay man” no longer jt meant a man who had sex wh a lot of women, but now started to refer to men who had sex wh other men.
THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’
The word “gay” seems to have s origs around the 12th century England, rived om the Old French word ‘gai’, which turn was probably rived om a Germanic word, though that isn’t pletely known. The word’s origal meang meant somethg to the effect of “joyful”, “reee”, “full of mirth”, or “bright and showy”.… * etymology term gay *
There was also another word “gey t” at this time which meant a homosexual boy. By 1955, the word gay now officially acquired the new add fn of meang homosexual mal. Gay men themselv seem to have been behd the drivg thst for this new fn as they felt (and many still do), that “homosexual” is much too clil, soundg like a disorr.
As such, was mon amongst the gay muny to refer to one another as “gay” s before this was a monly known fn (reportedly homosexual men were llg one another gay as early as the 1920s). At this time, homosexual women were referred to as lbians, not gay.
GAYDAR (N.)
Although women uld still be lled gay if they were prostut as that meang had not yet 100% disappeared.