Another word for gay happy
by Jordan Redman
Staff Writer
Do you know what the word gay really means?
The word gay dates help to the 12th century and comes from the Old French “gai,” definition “full of joy or mirth.” It may also relate to the Elderly High German “gahi,” essence impulsive.
For centuries, gay was used commonly in speech and literature to indicate happy, carefree, bright and showy, and did not take on any sexual meaning until the 1600s.
At that time the definition of gay as carefree evolved to imply that a person was unrestrained by morals and prone to decadence and promiscuity. A prostitute might own been described as a “gay woman” and a womanizer as a “gay man.”
“Gay house” was commonly used to refer to a brothel and, later, “gaiety” was used as a common name for certain places of entertainment.
In the 1890s, the word “gey cat” (a Scottish variant of gay) was used to describe a vagrant who offered sexual services to women or a young traveler who was new to the road and in the company of an older man.
This latter use suggests that the younger gentleman was in a sexually submissive role and may be among the first times that gay was used implying a queer relationship.
In 1951, gay appeared in the
Today I found out how ‘gay’ came to mean ‘homosexual’.
The word “gay” seems to have its origins around the 12th century in England, derived from the Old French word ‘gai’, which in turn was probably derived from a Germanic synonyms, though that isn’t completely known. The word’s original definition meant something to the effect of “joyful”, “carefree”, “full of mirth”, or “bright and showy”.
However, around the preceding parts of the 17th century, the word began to be associated with immorality. By the mid 17th century, according to an Oxford dictionary definition at the occasion, the meaning of the word had changed to mean “addicted to pleasures and dissipations. Often euphemistically: Of loose and immoral life”. This is an extension of one of the unique meanings of “carefree”, meaning more or less uninhibited.
Fast-forward to the 19th century and the synonyms gay referred to a woman who was a prostitute and a same-sex attracted man was someone who slept with a lot of women (ironically enough), often prostitutes. Also at this occasion, the phrase “gay it” meant to
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