Word: gay Part of Speech: adj Etymology: From Middle English gay, from Old French gai (“joyful, laughing, merry”), usually thought to be a borrowing of Old Occitan gai (“impetuous, lively”), from Gothic *𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍃 (*gaheis, “impetuous”), merging with earlier Old French jai ("merry"; see jay), from Frankish *gāhi; both from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudden”). This is possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- (“to stride, step”), from *ǵʰeh₁- (“to leave”), but Kroonen rejects this derivation and treats the Germanic word as having no known etymology. cognates and sense derivation Cognate with Dutch gauw (“fast, quickly”), Westphalian Low German gau, gai (“fast, quick”), German jäh (“abrupt, sudden”). Anatoly Liberman, following Frank Chance and Harri Meier, believes Old French gai was instead a native development from Latin vagus (“wandering, inconstant, flighty”), with *[w] > [g] as in French gaine. The sense of homosexual (first recorded no later than 1937 by Cary Grant in the film Bringing Up Baby, and possibly earlier in 1922 in the poem "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" by Gertrude Stein) was shortened from earlier gay boy ("young male prostitute") - and gay cat ("homosexual boy") in underworld and prison slang, itself first attested about 1935, but used earlier for a young tramp or hobo attached to an older one. Pejorative usage is due to hostility towards homosexuality. The sense of ‘upright’, used in reference to a dog’s tail, probably derives from the ‘happy’ sense of the word. Pronunciation: /ɡeɪ/ 1. Homosexual: Example: Cliff is gay, but his twin brother is straight. Example: 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. 2. Homosexual: Example: gay and lesbian people 3. Homosexual: Labels: broadly Example: In fact, as several letter writers to the New York Times pointed out in their response to the article, the disjuncture between these two popularized penguins shows how radically separated from each other are communities of gay people and communities of right-wing religious conservatives: if the Christian fundamentalists had looked up "gay penguins" or even "penguins" on the Internet, they would have encountered several gay penguin sites, including the story of Roy and Silo, the Central Park Zoo gay penguin couple about whom a children's book was written; the saga of the gay penguin community at a German zoo; and the campaign of Gay Penguin for President (whose slogan was "George W. Bush talks the talk, but Gay Penguin walks the walk.") 4. Homosexual: Example: Although the number of gay weddings has increased significantly, many gay and lesbian couples — like many straight couples — are not interested in getting married. Example: gay marriage 5. Homosexual: Labels: colloquial 6. Homosexual: Example: She professes an undying love for gay bars and gay movies, and even admits to having watched gay porn. Example: Gays meet each other in special-interest social groups—gay softball leagues, gay bike clubs, gay gymnasia, gay activist political organizations, the Gay Academic Union (an organization for gay teachers, scholars and students), gay university student clubs and so on. 7. Homosexual: Labels: slang Example: […] the pirates, who are obviously totally gay for each other […] Example: Being gay for Brad, even a teensy bit, is at the very least being able to imagine the potential for queerness. In a sense, like the recent popular and critical furor over men who are gay-for-pay, being gay for Brad is what Jeffrey Escoffier defines as "situational homosexuality," or other forms of man-on-man behavior […] In other words, rather than worry over whether or not men who are queer for Brad can easily be labeled as straight or gay, […] 8. Homosexual: Labels: humorous, slang Example: Vanilla straight guy here. […] Is it socially acceptable for me to good-naturedly say, "I'm totally gay for musical theater"? 9. Homosexual: Labels: broadly 10. Homosexual: Labels: broadly Example: This incident has become a source of much discussion, and the jury is still out on who is more gay: the guy who touched a dick or the guy who let a guy touch his dick. 11. Flamboyant or effeminate in behavior. Labels: derogatory, pejorative, slang 12. Used to express dislike: lame, uncool, stupid, burdensome, contemptible, generally bad. Labels: derogatory, pejorative, slang Example: This game is gay; let’s play a different one. Example: Dolph: "Oh, man! You kissed a girl!" Jimbo: "That is so gay!" 13. Happy, joyful, and lively. Labels: dated Example: The Gay Science Example: Never was there a more copious Fancy or greater reach of Wit, than what appears in Dr. Donne; nothing can be more gallant or gentile than the poems of Mr. Waller; nothing more gay or ſprightly than thoſe of Sir John Suckling; and nothing fuller of Variety and Learning than Mr. Cowley’s. 14. Quick, fast. Labels: dated Example: I went a gay shack, / For it started to rain. Example: We launched our canoe and were off at a gay clip for Hackettstown, where Mart had a married sister, and we were figuring on big eats. 15. Festive, bright, or colourful. Labels: dated Example: Pennsylvania Dutch include the plain folk and the gay folk. Example: A Beavie of fair women, richly gay / In gems and wanton dress. 16. Fair, beautiful, pretty, bonny; elegant, fine. Labels: obsolete Example: Thy purse and eke thy gay guilt kniues, thy pincase gallant to the eie: No better wore the Burgesse wiues, and yet thou wouldst not loue me. Example: THERE was a king of the north countree, […] And he had daughters one, two, three. […] To the eldest he gave a beaver hat, And the youngest she thought much of that. To the youngest he gave a gay gold chain, And the eldest she thought much of the same. 17. Sexually promiscuous (of any gender), (sometimes particularly) engaged in prostitution. Labels: obsolete Example: As our heroes passed along the Strand, they were accosted by a hundred gay ladies, who asked them if they were good-natured. "Devil take me!" exclaimed Echo, "if I know which way my ship heads; but there is not a girl in the Strand that I would touch with my gloves on." Example: Prince Borghese was what is called a "gay, dissipated man"—that is to say, a powerful person leading a debauched and infamous life. 18. Upright or curved over the back. Example: While the dog in concentrating at a given task, the tail is carried low and used for balance. In excitement it may rise level with the back. A “gay” tail is a fault. Example: By now Nora had left my side and was grappling with Maisie, trying to hold her still long enough to examine her bit. “You haven’t trained her well,” she muttered to Eli. “Oh, she’s got a gay tail!” Eli laughed. “A gay tail? What does that mean?” “It curls upward.” Nona let Maisie go. “Still, you never intended her to be a show dog,” she added. brushing off her skirt as she made for the house. 19. Considerable, great, large in number, size, or degree. In this sense, also in the variant gey. Labels: Northern-England, Scotland, obsolete, possibly Example: As his reply was rather characteristic, I will give it : Many of them come a gay bit off. Example: Thou 's wantin' a sweetheart? Thou 's had a gay few! An' thou 's cheatit them, […]