Word for gay
Glossary of Terms: LGBTQ
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LGBTQ
Acronym for lesbian, queer , bisexual, transgender, and queer. The Q generally stands for queer when LGBTQ organizations, leaders, and media use the acronym. In settings offering support for youth, it can also stand for questioning. LGBT and LGBTQ+ are also used, with the + added in recognition of all non-straight, non-cisgender identities. (See Transgender Glossary ) Both are acceptable, as are other versions of this acronym. The term “gay community” should be avoided, as it does not accuratel
by Jordan Redman
Staff Writer
Do you know what the word male lover really means?
The word gay dates back to the 12th century and comes from the Antique French “gai,” meaning “full of joy or mirth.” It may also relate to the Antique High German “gahi,” meaning impulsive.
For centuries, gay was used commonly in speech and literature to mean happy, carefree, bright and showy, and did not hold on any sexual meaning until the 1600s.
At that time the meaning of gay as carefree evolved to imply that a person was unrestrained by morals and prone to decadence and promiscuity. A prostitute might possess 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 frequent name for certain places of entertainment.
In the 1890s, the legal title “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 man was in a sexually submissive role and may be among the first times that gay was used implying a homosexual relationship.
In 1951, gay appeared in the
Today I found out how ‘gay’ came to imply ‘homosexual’.
The word “gay” seems to have its origins around the 12th century in England, derived from the Old French synonyms ‘gai’, which in shift was probably derived from a Germanic word, though that isn’t completely known. The word’s original essence meant something to the effect of “joyful”, “carefree”, “full of mirth”, or “bright and showy”.
However, around the early 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 time, 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 original meanings of “carefree”, meaning more or less uninhibited.
Fast-forward to the 19th century and the word gay referred to a woman who was a prostitute and a gay man was someone who slept with a lot of women (ironically enough), often prostitutes. Also at this hour, the phrase “gay it” meant t
Homosexual Terms in 18th-century Dictionaries
NOTE: In the following selection of definitions from dictionaries published during the eighteenth century, the most common words relating to homosexuality are "sodomy" and "buggery", which of course is no surprise. I assume we can safely assume that "buggery" is widely understood as meaning anal intercourse between males, but the synonyms "sodomy" seems to have a rather broader meaning, i.e. sex of any sort between males. Indeed, in Cocker's English dictionary of 1704 sodomy is defined simply as "male venery", which is really as abstract as the modern synonym "male homosexuality". Incidentally, the word "catamite" is sometimes just a synonym for "sodomite", and was not always restricted to one who submits to sodomy. There are also some other surprises. For example, the pos "molly" appeared in a Swedish/English dictionary in 1762, where it is simply defined as a sodomite, a buggerer, without effeminate connotations. "Molly" also appeared in a French/English dictionary in 1767, as well as in several slang (or "cant") dictionaries, along with other slang terms such as "madge". It is also fascinating to see the less familiar ter