gay:
1. A homosexual , a person whose affectional and sexual-orientation is towards members of the same sex . Although the word applies to both women and men (the differentiation is sometimes reinforced: gay man , lesbian woman), there is a sense that gay has been appropriated by men; many female homosexuals prefer to be known as lesbians ((From Lesbos; there is no corresponding eponym for a gay male.)2. The state of being homosexual ; homosexuality .
3. Homosexual; homoerotic ; pertaining to homosexual culture and homosexual people.
Etymology: In 13 th century France, gai / gahi refered to the cult of courtly love , a euphemism of the time for same-sex love , and gai / gaiol was a homosexual lover . In 17 th England, gay expanded from its earlier meaning of cheerful to include men with a reputation for promiscuity. Gay Lothario appeared the English in 1703. In the 18 th century the word gay was often allied to a women or girls to mean promiscuos or prostitutes; to be gay / gay-in-the-legs (groin or arse) meant to be promiscuous ; gaying-it meant to copulate ; a gaying-instrument was a penis , a gay-house was a brothel . In the 1890s, gay meant carefree, informal; to get gay meant to take (hetero)sexual liberties unimaginable just a decade earlier. The adoption of that word by homosexuals for self description originated during WWII, possibly by the adaptation of gey cat or gay cat , a prison and hobo slang term in the 1930s for a male homosexual , especially the homosexual companion of an older tramp . From Lawrence Paros in The Erotic Tongue (1984): ' Gay did not become associated with simulsex (early-20 th C .) activity until the early part of the twentieth century, and then it was primarily underground. It didn't go-public with this meaning until 1925, with the gay boy in Australia, and 1935 in the United States in the film Bringing Up Baby , in which Cary Grant donned a dress and commented how he had gone gay. Between 1955 and 1960, it captured everyone's fancy , culminating in the joyous outburst of the seventies .' Cary Grant, dressed in Katherine Hepburn's pink negligé, is aked by the aunt why is he so dressed; he jumps high up and shouts: ' Because I suddenly went gay! '
Quotes:
(1) C . Isherwood: ' Damned silly... A term which made us into frivolous idiots, sort of bliss-ninnies .'
(2) Vladimir Ivanoff (Robin Williams) a recent Russian immigrant to the US confronts a man who has been following him on the streets of New York in Moscow on the Hudson (1984):-- Vlad: ' FBI? '-- Man: ' FBI? No .'-- Vlad: ' KGB? '-- Man: ' KGB? No... G-A-Y .'-- Vlad: 'G?...A?...Y?... No! '
(3) Rachel (Liza D'Agostino) and Loretta (Nancy Allison Wolfe) in Bar Girls (1994):-- Rachel: ' Do you think I'm gay? '-- Loretta: ' What do you mean? '-- Rachel: ' Well, how do you know for sure? '-- Loretta: ' You just know that's all. It's like being French . Either you are or you're not .'
(4) Pino (Anthony de Sando) and a lesbian in Kiss Me Guido (1998):-- Pino: ' You're a lesbian? Hey, I'm sorry. You like girls? That's cool , me too, but you have no desire to do-it with a guy? '-- Lesbian: ' Do you? '-- Pino: ' That's disgusting! '-- Lesbian: ' Exactly .'
(5) Murray (Donald Faison) to Cher Hamilton (Alicia Silverstone) about her friend in Clueless (1995): ' Your man Christian is a cake-boy. (...) He's a disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde-reading, Streisand ticket-holder friend of Dorothy. Know what I'm saying? '
Synonyms: bit-of-beef, a-bit-of-bouncy-bouncy, a bit of business, a bit of bum-dancing, a-bit-of-butt, a-bit-of-cauliflower, a bit of cock-fighting, a-bit-of-crumpet, a-bit-of-cuddle, a bit of cunt, a bit of curly greens, a-bit-of-fat, a bit of fish, a-bit-of-flat, a-bit-of-fork, a-bit-of-front-door-work, a-bit-of-fun, a-bit-of-hair, a-bit-of-how's-yer-father, a-bit-of-it, a-bit-of-nifty, a-bit-of-nobble, a-bit-of-nookey, a-bit-of-pork, a bit of quimsy, a-bit-of-raspberry, a-bit-of-rough, a-bit-of-rumpty-tumpty, a-bit-of-rumpy-bumpy, a-bit-of-rumpy-pumpy, a-bit-of-snug, a-bit-of-the-other, a-bit-of-skin, a-bit-of-snug-for-a-bit-of-stiff, a-bit-of-stiff, a-bit-of-the-old-in-and-out, a bit on a / the fork, a-dash-up-the-channel, a-knee-trembler, a little game of hide-the-sausage, a-little-o-the-one-with-tother, a-little-one-on-one, a piece of crumpet, a-poke-in-the-whiskers, a-poke-through-the-whiskers, a-spot-of-Cupids-archery, a spot hard breathing, a-squeeze-and-a-squirt, accommodate, act, the, act-of-androgynation, act-of-darkness, act-of-generation, act-of-kind, act-of-love, act-of-pleasure, act-of-shame, act-of-sport, Adam-and-Eve-it, adamize, afternoon-delight, all-the-way, all there but the most of you, amorous-congress, amorous-rites, ashes-hauled, assault-with-a-friendly-weapon, at-it, baby-making-love, bag, bag-up, bag-of-coke, bait-the-hook, balaclava, ball, balling, balling-the-jack, balls-eye, baloney-hop, baloney ride, bam-bam, banana, bananas-and-cream, bandicooting, bang, bang-away, bang-like-a-shithouse-door-(in-a-gale), bang like a shithouse door (in the wind), banging, banging away, Barrer-Moke, bash-leather, basket-making, bat-up, bawdy-banquet, bayonet-drill, BBQ'N, be-intimate-with, be-with-a-woman, beanfeast
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