"Gay"

[Radio Storm]

The word "gay" used to simply mean "something happy and positive". How did it come to be associated with homosexuality and commonly used as an insult?

[tucker!]

It turned into "happy and carefree", then acquired a sexual connotation so it kind of meant a slut or sexual deviant, and eventually became associated with homosexuality. I think.

*This page does not cite sources. Please help Govpedia correct this.

[phantasmagoria]

I'd say something with homosexual men being flamboyant.

[And?]

I'd google semantic shift .

What you want to think about is the original definition(s) of the word:

--Bright or lively, especially in color: a gay, sunny room.
--Dissolute; licentious.
--Showing or characterized by cheerfulness and lighthearted excitement; merry.


Then you need to think of societal changes that have taken place since the word was first coined. Given the fact that noun "That's a gay over there" is still seen as 'bad use', and that the world used to think of homosexuals as 'licentious', you can see the leap isn't too big, really.

Just like Todd said, when homosexuality was deemed a bad thing, it was connoted with this morally defunct kind of person.

Gay =

Bright, cheery, lighthearted >>> carefree >>> immoral >>> faggots.

Eh voilà.

[steeper]

*logs into the Oxford Online English Dictionary*

There are a ridiculous number of changes to the meaning of "gay" throughout history. I feel these ones are most likely to have influenced the modern use. (for those of you who've never used the full oxford english dictionary and have only seen the pocket versions, the full version provides definitions throughout time, giving first a definition, followed by the usage using quotes from literary sources, speeches et cetera).

4. a. Wanton, lewd, lascivious. Obs.

c1405 (c1390) CHAUCER Miller's Tale (Hengwrt) l. 3769 Som gay gerl..Hath broght yow thus vp on the viritoot. a1425 Medulla Gram. (Stonyhurst) f. 26, Laciuus: gay. a1450 Castle Perseverance 1163 anne mayst ou..serdyn gay gerlys.



b. Originally of persons and later also more widely: dedicated to social pleasures; dissolute, promiscuous; frivolous, hedonistic. Also (esp. in to go gay): uninhibited; wild, crazy; flamboyant. Cf. Gay Nineties n. at Special uses 2a. Now rare.
See also gay dog n. at Special uses 2a. gay Lothario: see LOTHARIO n.

1597 J. PAYNE Royall Exch. 27 Sum gay professors (kepinge secret minions) do love there wyues..to avoyde shame. 1624 P. MASSINGER Bond-man V. iii. sig. L3, Then I dare rise vp And tell this gay man to his teeth, I neuer Durst doubt her constancie. 1637 J. SHIRLEY Lady of Pleasure v. K 1 b, Lord. You'le not be angry, Madam. Cel. Nor rude, though gay men have a priviledge. 1700 T. BROWN Amusem. Serious & Comical x. 130 Every Dunce of a Quack, is call'd a Physician..Every Gay thing, a Chevalier. 1703 N. ROWE Fair Penitent V. i, Is this that Haughty, Gallant, Gay Lothario? 1754 Adventurer No. 124. 7 The old gentleman, whose character I cannot better express than in the fashionable phrase which has been contrived to palliate false principles and dissolute manners, had been a gay man, and was well acquainted with the town. 1791 E. BURKE Let. to Member Nat. Assembly in Wks. VI. 36 The brilliant part of men of wit and pleasure, or gay, young, military sparks. 1798 J. FERRIAR Illustr. Sterne ii. 40 The dissolute conduct of the gay circles in France is not of modern date. 1847 H. ROGERS Ess. I. v. 214 For some years he lived a cheerful, and even gay, though never a dissipated life, in Paris. 1849 MACAULAY Hist. Eng. II. vi. 103 The place was merely a gay suburb of the capital. 1851 H. MAYHEW London Labour I. 382/2 The principal of the firm was what is termed ‘gay’. He was particularly fond of attending public entertainments. He sported a little as well, and delighted in horse-racing. 1879 National Police Gaz. 4 Jan. 6/1 Besides being very handsome, there are reasons to fear that Mr. Charles Victor Fremy was sometimes very, very gay. 1891 E. PEACOCK Narcissa Brendon I. 302 This elder Narcissa had led a gay and wild life while beauty lasted. 1897 J. HUTCHINSON Archives Surg. VIII. 224 My patient was a married man, who admitted having been very gay in early life. 1912 C. MACKENZIE Carnival xi. 128 They stayed another night [at the public house]... Jenny..had a flaming quarrel with her mother, who accused her of ‘going gay’. 1932 Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Crescent 17 Aug. 9/4 Often the beginning of a married man's sidesteppings are coincident with his starting down the financial toboggan... Think of the number of men you know who began to lose out as soon as they began to go gay. 1939 H. WALPOLE Sea Tower iv. 54 She understood that there had been ‘ladies’. Her father had in fact a..reputation as ‘gay’.

6. U.S. Amongst the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) or other (esp. nonconformist) religious groups: denoting a person who has ceased adhering to the plain and simple life or beliefs of the community; worldly. Esp. in gay Quaker, to go gay. Now chiefly hist.
This sense perh. arises from the idea that showy clothes are a mark of worldliness; compare use of to go gay in 16th-17th cent. quots. at sense A. 2b.

1798 Aurora (Philadelphia) 6 Nov. 3/2 Her dress was pretty nearly that marked as ‘gay quakers’; she wore a white gown, white gloves, white..bonnet, green petticoat, and drab cloak. 1876 Ballou's Monthly Mag. July 90/1 Abner and Susan..were of the strictest sort of Friends, even in the Quaker City where all were strict, and ‘gay Quakers’ were as yet unknown. 1888 J. GOSSLER Turnpike-road 71 The attendance [at the Quaker meeting-house] was much larger fifty years ago... During the interval they have become ‘gay’, or ‘gone West’, or ‘over to the majority’. 1935 Amer. Speech 10 169/1 To go gay, meaning to become worldly in the sense of attending dances, card parties, or participating in other forbidden pleasures. 1969 Washington Post 9 Nov. G3/1 If an Amish young man enters the outside worldwhat they call ‘going gay’his father is relieved of the obligation of providing a farm for that son. 1999 S. BRUCE Choice & Relig. vi. 151 Early Quakers would not have read a novel or attended the theatre but the Gay Quakers (usually the offspring of wealthy merchants)..became more and more like the Church of England neighbours with whom they mixed as social equals.

[Stewie]

Originally Posted by steeper

*logs into the Oxford Online English Dictionary*

I'm glad we have the same first instinct on matters like this. I just couldn't be bothered to copy and paste it here. Nice work.