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.)
* roots of the word gay *
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 ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’
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.
) 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.