Ayto calls attention to the ambiguous use of the word in the 1868 song "The Gay Young Clerk in the Dry Goods Store," by U.S.
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Rawson notes a male prostitute using gay in reference to male homosexuals (but also to female prostitutes) in London's notorious Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889. The "Dictionary of American Slang" reports that gay (adj.) was used by homosexuals, among themselves, in this sense at least since 1920. In "Sociology and Social Research" (1932-33) a paragraph on the "gay cat" phenomenon notes, "Homosexual practices are more common than rare in this group," and gey cat "homosexual boy" is attested in Noel Erskine's 1933 dictionary of "Underworld & Prison Slang" ( gey is a Scottish variant of gay). Gay cats were severely and cruelly abused by "real" tramps and bums, who considered them "an inferior order of beings who begs of and otherwise preys upon the bum - as it were a jackal following up the king of beasts", but some accounts report certain older tramps would dominate a gay cat and employ him as a sort of slave. Quoting a tramp named Frenchy, who might not have known the origin. Do you want to know where they got their monica (nickname) 'Gay Cat'? See, Kid, cats sneak about and scratch immediately after chumming with you and then get gay (fresh). "A Gay Cat," said he, "is a loafing laborer, who works maybe a week, gets his wages and vagabonds about hunting for another 'pick and shovel' job. The association with (male) homosexuality likely got a boost from the term gay cat, used as far back as 1893 in American English for "young hobo," one who is new on the road, also one who sometimes does jobs. He always wished others would make advances to him. 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. Slang meaning "homosexual" (adj.) begins to appear in psychological writing late 1940s, evidently picked up from gay slang and not always easily distinguished from the older sense:Īfter discharge A.Z. The suggestion of immorality in the word can be traced back at least to the 1630s, if not to Chaucer: But in oure bed he was so fressh and gay Whan that he wolde han my bele chose. The word gay by the 1890s had an overall tinge of promiscuity - a gay house was a brothel. In the English of Yorkshire and Scotland formerly it could mean "moderately, rather, considerable" (1796 compare sense development in pretty (adj.)).
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of persons, "dressed up, decked out in finery," late 14c. of colors, etc., "shining, glittering, gleaming, bright, vivid," late 14c. Of things, "sumptuous, showy, rich, ornate," mid-14c. Meaning "stately and beautiful splendid and showily dressed" is from early 14c. Ultimate origin disputed perhaps from Frankish *gahi (related to Old High German wahi "pretty"), though not all etymologists accept this. compare Old Spanish gayo, Portuguese gaio, Italian gajo, probably French loan-words). as a surname, Philippus de Gay), from Old French gai "joyful, happy pleasant, agreeably charming forward, pert light-colored" (12c. Late 14c., "full of joy, merry light-hearted, carefree " also "wanton, lewd, lascivious" (late 12c.