What is "gay"

I.adjectiveII.noun

Gay \Gay\ (g[=a]), a. [Compar. Gayer; superl. Gayest.] [F. gai, perhaps fr. OHG. g?hi swift, rapid, G. g["a]h, j["a]h, steep, hasty; or cf. OHG. w?hi beatiful, good. Cf. Jay.]

1. Excited with merriment; manifesting sportiveness or delight; inspiring delight; livery; merry.

   Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay.
   --Pope.

   Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed.
   --Gray.

2. Brilliant in colors; splendid; fine; richly dressed.

   Why is my neighbor's wife so gay?
   --Chaucer.

   A bevy of fair women, richly gay In gems and wanton dress!
   --Milton.

3. Loose; dissipated; lewd. [Colloq.]

   Syn: Merry; gleeful; blithe; airy; lively; sprightly, sportive; light-hearted; frolicsome; jolly; jovial; joyous; joyful; glad; showy; splendid; vivacious.

Gay \Gay\, n. An ornament [Obs.]
--L'Estrange.

late 14c., "full of joy, merry; light-hearted, carefree;" also "wanton, lewd, lascivious" (late 12c. as a surname, Philippus de Gay), from Old French gai "joyful, happy; pleasant, agreeably charming; forward, pert" (12c.; compare Old Spanish gayo, Portuguese gaio, Italian gajo, probably French loan-words). Ultimate origin disputed; perhaps from Frankish *gahi (related to Old High German wahi "pretty"), though not all etymologists accept this. Meaning "stately and beautiful; splendid and showily dressed" is from early 14c. The word gay by the 1890s had an overall tinge of promiscuity -- a gay house was a brothel. The suggestion of immorality in the word can be traced back at least to the 1630s, if not to Chaucer:\n\nBut in oure bed he was so fressh and gay\n
Whan that he wolde han my bele chose.\n\nSlang meaning "homosexual" (adj.) begins to appear in psychological writing late 1940s, evidently picked up from gay slang and not always easily distinguished from the older sense:\n\nAfter discharge A.Z. lived for some time at home. He was not happy at the farm and went to a Western city where he associated with a homosexual crowd, being "gay," and wearing female clothes and makeup. He always wished others would make advances to him.

["Rorschach Research Exchange and Journal of Projective Techniques," 1947, p.240]

\nThe association with (male) homosexuality likely got a boost from the term gay cat, used as far back as 1893 in American English for "young hobo," one who is new on the road, also one who sometimes does jobs.\n\n"A Gay Cat," said he, "is a loafing laborer, who works maybe a week, gets his wages and vagabonds about hunting for another 'pick and shovel' job. Do you want to know where they got their monica (nickname) 'Gay Cat'? See, Kid, cats sneak about and scratch immediately after chumming with you and then get gay (fresh). That's why we call them 'Gay Cats'."

[Leon Ray Livingston ("America's Most Celebrated Tramp"), "Life and Adventures of A-no. 1," 1910]

\nQuoting a tramp named Frenchy, who might not have known the origin. Gay cats were severely and cruelly abused by "real" tramps and bums, who considered them "an inferior order of beings who begs of and otherwise preys upon the bum -- as it were a jackal following up the king of beasts" [Prof. John J. McCook, "Tramps," in "The Public Treatment of Pauperism," 1893], but some accounts report certain older tramps would dominate a gay cat and employ him as a sort of slave. In "Sociology and Social Research" (1932-33) a paragraph on the "gay cat" phenomenon notes, "Homosexual practices are more common than rare in this group," and gey cat "homosexual boy" is attested in N. Erskine's 1933 dictionary of "Underworld & Prison Slang" (gey is a Scottish variant of gay).\n

\nThe "Dictionary of American Slang" reports that gay (adj.) was used by homosexuals, among themselves, in this sense since at least 1920. Rawson ["Wicked Words"] notes a male prostitute using gay in reference to male homosexuals (but also to female prostitutes) in London's notorious Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889. Ayto ["20th Century Words"] calls attention to the ambiguous use of the word in the 1868 song "The Gay Young Clerk in the Dry Goods Store," by U.S. female impersonator Will S. Hays, but the word evidently was not popularly felt in this sense by wider society until the 1950s at the earliest.\n\n"Gay" (or "gai") is now widely used in French, Dutch, Danish, Japanese, Swedish, and Catalan with the same sense as the English. It is coming into use in Germany and among the English-speaking upper classes of many cosmopolitan areas in other countries.

[John Boswell, "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality," 1980]

\nGay as a noun meaning "a (usually male) homosexual" is attested from 1971; in Middle English it meant "excellent person, noble lady, gallant knight," also "something gay or bright; an ornament or badge" (c.1400). As a slang word meaning "bad, inferior, undesirable," from 2000.

Etymology 1

1. 1 (context dated English) 2 # happy, joyful, and lively. n. 1 (context chiefly in plural or attributive English) A homosexual, ''especially'' a male homosexual; ''see also'' lesbian. 2 (context obsolete English) An ornament. v

2. 1 (lb en dated uncommon) To make happy or cheerful. (since at least the 1920s) 2 (lb en uncommon) To cause (an issue, especially AIDS) to be associated with gay people. (popularized in the 1990s) Etymology 2

   n. The name of the letter ⟨'''—'''⟩, which stands for the sound (IPA /ɡ/ English), in Pitman shorthand.

n. someone who practices homosexuality; having a sexual attraction to persons of the same sex [syn: homosexual, homo]

1. adj. bright and pleasant; promoting a feeling of cheer; "a cheery hello"; "a gay sunny room"; "a sunny smile" [syn: cheery, sunny]

2. full of or showing high-spirited merriment; "when hearts were young and gay"; "a poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company"- Wordsworth; "the jolly crowd at the reunion"; "jolly old Saint Nick"; "a jovial old gentleman"; "have a merry Christmas"; "peals of merry laughter"; "a mirthful laugh" [syn: jocund, jolly, jovial, merry, mirthful]

3. given to social pleasures often including dissipation; "led a gay Bohemian life"; "a gay old rogue with an eye for the ladies"

4. brightly colored and showy; "girls decked out in brave new dresses"; "brave banners flying"; "`braw' is a Scottish word"; "a dress a bit too gay for her years"; "birds with gay plumage" [syn: brave, braw]

5. offering fun and gaiety; "a gala ball after the inauguration"; "a festive (or festal) occasion"; "gay and exciting night life"; "a merry evening" [syn: gala(a), festal, festive, merry]

6. homosexual or arousing homosexual desires [syn: queer, homophile(a)]

Gay originally used to refer to feelings of being "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy", but since the 1960s (by reappropriation) has most commonly referred to a male (and later also a female) whose sexual orientation is attraction to persons of the same sex.

Gay may also refer to:

Gay (Gaye) is a female or male given name (795th ("Gay") and 1295th ("Gaye") most common female name in the United States, according to the 1990 U.S. census.)

It can also be used as a short form of the female names Gaynell and Gaynor and as a short form of the male names Gaylen and Gaylord.

The writer Gay Talese's name is derived from Gaetano, his grandfather's name.

The first name of the popular male Irish television presenter Gabriel Byrne was always abbreviated as "Gay", as in the title of his radio show The Gay Byrne Show.

Gay is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term was originally used to mean "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy".

The term's use as a reference to homosexuality may date as early as the late 19th century, but its use gradually increased in the 20th century. In modern English, gay has come to be used as an adjective, and as a noun, referring to the people, especially to gay males, and the practices and cultures associated with homosexuality. By the end of the 20th century, the word gay was recommended by major LGBT groups and style guides to describe people attracted to members of the same sex.

At about the same time, a new, pejorative use became prevalent in some parts of the world. In the Anglosphere, this connotation, among younger speakers, has a meaning ranging from derision (e.g., equivalent to rubbish or stupid) to a light-hearted mockery or ridicule (e.g., equivalent to weak, unmanly, or lame). In this use, the word rarely means "homosexual", as it is often used, for example, to refer to an inanimate object or abstract concept of which one disapproves. The extent to which these usages still retain connotations of homosexuality has been debated and harshly criticized.

Gay was Toronto's first gay magazine, published almost simultaneously with ASK Newsletter, together Canada's first gay magazines. The earliest periodical anywhere to use 'Gay' in its title. Produced by four Toronto men in a commercial venture, the Gay Publishing Company, Gay ran serious articles, letters to the editor, a diary, gossip columns, a feature called the "Gabrial Club", poetry, fiction, politics and a discrete personals column. Gay was illustrated, usually with photographs of drag queens, but also including 'physique' photography.

Intended for a 'mainstream' gay audience it reflected cautious reformism, defending the rights and normalcy of a constituency living in a hostile environment. This was not unlike the political activism emerging in a few large American and European cities before more confrontational activism. Gay also published on Toronto police raids on bars, and on the calls for social and political change that were beginning to surface.

The first five-hundred-copy issue sold out almost immediately. Printing two thousand copies by issue three, distributed to a number of outlets in Toronto and Montreal. Shortly, Gay expanded into the United States as Gay International. It quickly outstripped American publications' distributions, and by the spring of 1965 it was publishing twenty thousand copies across North America and selling about eight thousand. Publication ended in 1966 when criminal charges were levied against one of its central creators.

Gay is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Bill Gay (American football) (born 1927), American football player
• Bram Gay Trumpet player and brass band enthusiast
• Brian Gay, American golfer
• Cesc Gay (born 1967) movie director
• Claude Gay, French botanist
• Connie B. Gay (1914–1989), American country music promoter
• David Gay (1920–2010), British Army officer, recipient of the Military Cross, and English cricketer
• Edwin Francis Gay (1867-1946), American economist
• Enola Gay, name of the plane that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, named after the mother of Paul Tibbets
• George H. Gay, Jr. (1917–1994), Naval aviator in World War II
• George K. Gay (1810–1882), English sailor and pioneer who participated in Oregon's Provisional Government
• Henry M. Gay, one of three founders of Triad Systems Corporation, now known as Activant
• Hobart R. Gay (1894–1983), American general
• Jacques Etienne Gay (1786–1864) French botanist
• Jason Gay, birth name of contemporary Christian singer-songwriter Jason Gray. He had many recording and releases as Jason Gay before changing his name to Gray
• Jean Baptiste Gay, vicomte de Martignac (1778–1832), French statesman
• John Gay (1685–1732), English dramatist
• John Gay (photographer) (1909–1999), English photographer
• Jonathan Gay, inventor of Macromedia Flash
• José Aurelio Gay (born 1965), Spanish football player and manager
• Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778–1850), French physicist
• Mabel Gay (born 1983), Cuban triple jumper
• Maria Gay (1879–1943), Catalan opera singer
• Marvin Gay, Sr. (1914–1998), American minister of the House of God
• Nikolai Ge or Gay (1831–1894), Russian painter
• Noel Gay (1898–1954), English composer of popular music
• Paul Gay (born 1968), French opera singer
• Peter Gay (1923–2015), German-born U.S. historian
• Randall Gay (born 1982), American football player, currently playing for the New Orleans Saints
• Robert Marie Gay (1927–2016), Canadian-born Ugandan Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Kabale (1996–2003)
• Ross Gay, American poet and professor
• Rudy Gay (born 1986), American professional basketball player, currently with the Sacramento Kings
• Susan Elizabeth Gay, chronicler of the history of Old Falmouth
• Tyson Gay (born 1982), American sprinter
• William Gay (disambiguation), several people
• Virginia Gay (born 1981), Australian actress

Category:English-language surnames Category:French-language surnames