Re: [NTLK] [OT] Gay Mackey

From: Robert Benschop (rbenschop_at_mac.com)
Date: Fri Jun 21 2002 - 03:48:15 EDT


on 21-06-2002 7:19, Pedro Hobbyfrazoo at pjfraser_at_mac.com wrote:

> Interesting you should bring up context, because that was what was so
> baffling about the original remark - what does distorted sound have to
> do with the word "gay" which is commonly used now to describe
> homosexuals?

Please let's not go into another endless discussion here.

Maybe it helps to see what the dictionary says:
(and please don't start another thread about copyrights !)

gay (g=E7) adj., -er, -est, n., adv.
  =20
   -adj.
      1. having or showing a merry, lively mood: gay spirits.
      2. bright or showy: gay colors.
      3. given to or abounding in social or other pleasures: a gay
      social season.
      4. licentious; dissipated; wanton: a wild, gay life.
      5. homosexual.
      6. indicating or pertaining to homosexual interests or issues: a
      gay organization.
  =20
   -n.
      7. a homosexual person, esp. a male.
  =20
   -adv.
      8. in a gay manner.
  =20
   -gay'ness n.=20
   -Usage GAY has had senses dealing with sexual conduct since
   the 17th century. A gay woman was a prostitute, a gay man a
   womanizer, a gay house a brothel. GAY as an adjective meaning
   "homosexual" goes back at least to the early 1900s. After World
   War II, as social attitudes toward sexuality began to change, GAY
   was applied openly byhomosexuals to themselves, first as adjective
   and later as noun. Today, the noun often designates only a male:
   gays and lesbians. The word has ceased to be slang and is not
   used disparagingly. HOMOSEXUAL as a noun is sometimes used only
   in reference to a male.
Gay (g=E7) n.
      John, 1685=F11732, English poet and dramatist.

So in the memory of John Gay. please let this subject rest.

Robert Benschop

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