Gay (word)
Originally meaning carefree, happy, brightly coloured, and pleasure loving, in contemporary usage it is generally used as a synonym for homosexuality i.e. sexual attraction to somebody who shares your gender
Etymology
The ancient origins of "gay" are uncertain, with some etymologists tracing it to the Old High German gâhi ("swift"), though recent research supports wâhi ("pretty") as a more likely source. The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) also notes that "the sense ‘slack, not closely fitting’, which exists in all the Romance languages (although not at an early date) may possibly be of etymological significance." [1]
Its oldest meaning in English, attested as early as 1310, is "disposed to joy and mirth", and this was the most common use until the 20th Century. Its use as a reference to homosexuality is not noted in dictionaries until 1935, when the word "geycat" was cited as prison slang for a homosexual boy; the independent form "gay" first appears in 1951.[2] However, there are earlier instances of "gay" implying homosexuality, for example in 1889 the Cleveland Street Scandal in London, in which male prostitutes operated within a club in the East End.[3]
These early usages were generally strongly pejorative, but in the wake of the gay movement the word began to be used in a purely descriptive sense, with the implication that implied that homosexuality was not something about which people ought to feel ashamed.
Cultural history
The English word "gay" was applied to stylish objects as well as to people; it is, for instance, used to refer to various accoutrements of the Canterbury pilgrims by Geoffrey Chaucer, e.g. the Knight's Yeoman was said to have a "gay dagerre." The word is a close relative of the Middle French and Provençal words gaya and gai, meaning, roughly, "joyful." Occitanian poets defined their poetic craft as lo gai saber, or the "joyful knowledge," and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche borrowed this phrase for his book, Das Fröliche Wissenschaft (1882), often translated as "The Gay Science."
Such a broadly poetic, and largely positive use of the word has faded with its entry into political debates, whether pro- or anti-gay. This change in the word is reflected in such compound usages as gay-friendly or gay-bashing, as well as with blends such as gaydar (a homophonic pun on radar, referring to the susposed ability of gay men to detect other, possibly closeted, gay men's sexual orientation). In the early twenty-first century, the word "gay" entered youth parlance as a synonym for "silly" or "ridiculous," a usage that some speakers insist is non-prejudicial, despite its past history of negative connotations.
References
- ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, gay, a., adv., and n., retrieved 7/28/2007.
- ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, gay, a., adv., and n., retrieved 7/28/2007.
- ↑ Hugh Rawson, Wicked Words, NY: Crown, 1989 ISBN 0517573342