Evolution Of Gay

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The Evolution of the Word Gay Gay, go into any Youtube comment section, and you well see this word. Today we know it as either defining someone’s sexuality or if someone is happy. Even in seventh grade reading, I remember us going over the word gay and the misuse of it. My teacher would tell us that kids nowadays miss use words because they’re not taught the proper meaning of words. Ironically though, we still were not taught any other meaning of the word, just two. The word gay has not only been around for centuries, but the meaning of it has also changed over time. The word gay is first seen around the twelfth century in England, originating from the old French word “gai”, meaning joyful, carefree, full of mirth, or bright and showy. By …show more content…
The word gay referred to a woman who was a prostitute or a gay man was someone who slept with a lot of women, often prostitutes. Compared with today’s meaning this is a very ironic definition. Also at this time, the modern phrase at the time “gay it” meant to have intercourse. With these new definitions, the original meanings of gay such as carefree, joyful, and bright and showy, were still around; so the word was not exclusively used to refer to prostitutes or a promiscuous man. These were all accepted definitions, along with the other meanings of the word. Around the 1920s and 1930s, the word started to have another new meaning. In terms of the sexual meaning of the word, a “gay man” no longer just meant a man who had intercourse with a lot of women, but now started to refer to men who had intercourse with other men. There was also another word “gey cat” at this time which meant a homosexual boy.This new definition wasn’t fully thrusted into being a household term until the 1950s, actually being pushed by the homosexual community. The term “gay” was already popular in the homosexual community as early as the 1920s. They felt that the term “homosexual” was a too clinical term and it seemed more like a illness. At this time, homosexual women were referred to as lesbians, not gay. Although women could still be called gay if they were prostitutes as that meaning had not yet 100% …show more content…
I hear this term many times a day in different ways than I have previously stated. I’ve hear it not only to refer to a homosexual, but also to refer to when something is seen as stupid, or used to show dismay in something. The word used to be a more private term, considered not in polite company, however, since then it has lost some of its derogatory meaning. With it being incorporated into urban slang, it has lost the interpretation it previously had. It is still not considered politically correct to used out in public, but it has become a common word to use
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