When has "gay" been homosexual?

[Le fishe au chocolat]

That makes no points at all.
"Gay" means happy, and we'll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home.

[metamec]

Origineel geplaatst door JDON MY SOUL:

I see, but if there were no Internet, I think the most part of the English speaking world would still use "gay" as happy.

People were using gay in the same way before the internet, many as a self-descriptor, many as a pejorative to humiliate or insult others.

Most words have multiple meanings in the English language.

'Straight' means something other than 'extending or moving uniformly in one direction only', for example. Weirdly, nobody ever takes issue with that.

[Computer]

It went like something this

queer = weird(...)

weird = gay (...)

queer = gay (pre 1960s)
gay = happy (pre 1960s)

gay = gay(1955-2020)

happy = annoying idiot (2012-present)
gay = happy (2020-present)

[Candyy]

Did not the word gay have an extensive history way before baby boomers existed? 🤔

[Xero_Daxter]

Dax is the type of femboy who doesn’t say “no ♥♥♥♥”.

[Computer]

note: gey cat

Around the 1920s and 1930s, however, the word started to have a new meaning. In terms of the sexual meaning of the word, a “gay man” no longer just meant a man who had sex with a lot of women, but now started to refer to men who had sex with other men. There was also another word “gey cat” at this time which meant a homosexual boy.

By 1955, the word gay now officially acquired the new added definition of meaning homosexual males. Gay men themselves seem to have been behind the driving thrust for this new definition as they felt (and many still do), that “homosexual” is much too clinical, sounding like a disorder. As such, it was common amongst the gay community to refer to one another as “gay” decades before this was a commonly known definition (reportedly homosexual men were calling one another gay as early as the 1920s). 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% disappeared.

[Axe]

Origineel geplaatst door JDON MY SOUL:

...but if there were no Internet, I think the most part of the English speaking world would still use "gay" as happy

Just not true.Gay as meaning homosexual was around well before the internet started.

I should know as I lived through that disgusting hijack by these people.

[Le fishe au chocolat]

Origineel geplaatst door Axe:

Origineel geplaatst door JDON MY SOUL:

...but if there were no Internet, I think the most part of the English speaking world would still use "gay" as happy

Just not true.Gay as meaning homosexual was around well before the internet started.

I should know as I lived through that disgusting hijack by these people.

I didn't say Internet created it, but the Internet has spread "gay" as homosexual over the World. If there were no Internet, some far places like South Africa, New Zealand and Australia wouldn't use "gay" as homosexual nowadays.

[Abaddon the Despoiler]

Since before you were born.

[De Hollandse Ezel]

in my nations before 1960 gay were known as sodomites.
I still call them that. but thats mostly the term used for them in religions(christian) circles..

[metamec]

Origineel geplaatst door JDON MY SOUL:

I didn't say Internet created it, but the Internet has spread "gay" as homosexual over the World. If there were no Internet, some far places like South Africa, New Zealand and Australia wouldn't use "gay" as homosexual nowadays.

No it has not. It was already popularised in those countries too. You are mistaken.

[Abaddon the Despoiler]

Origineel geplaatst door metamec:

Origineel geplaatst door JDON MY SOUL:

I didn't say Internet created it, but the Internet has spread "gay" as homosexual over the World. If there were no Internet, some far places like South Africa, New Zealand and Australia wouldn't use "gay" as homosexual nowadays.

No it has not. It was already popularised in those countries too. You are mistaken.

People were using that word for that meaning before the internet was even an idea.

[Azza ☠]

Origineel geplaatst door JDON MY SOUL:

Origineel geplaatst door Axe:

Just not true.Gay as meaning homosexual was around well before the internet started.

I should know as I lived through that disgusting hijack by these people.

I didn't say Internet created it, but the Internet has spread "gay" as homosexual over the World. If there were no Internet, some far places like South Africa, New Zealand and Australia wouldn't use "gay" as homosexual nowadays.

It's from Middle English derived from the Old French word "gai". It originally means to be "joyfree", "carefree" and to be "bright and showy".

You could have a "gay old time" which just meant an enjoyable experience. Even the Flintstones intro used that meaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJI4uqkv2bU

It wasn't until around the mid 17th century, the term meaning was added to "addicted to pleasures and dissipations".

Females prostitutes used "gay it" as a term to have sex. Ironically, it's meaning changed to someone who slept with a lot of woman, often prostitutes.

Another the 1920s and 1930s was when they added "gey cat" to mean a homosexual boy and "gay it" was no longer a lot of woman, but rather started referring to men.

Wasn't until 1955, the word "gay" referred to only homosexuals males.
That's because the homosexual females also became referred to as lesbians.

[Stranger]

prohibition coincided with a global spike in anti-homosexual sentiments as well as the rise to power of several bootleggers-turned-politicians, who correctly recognized that their homosexuality and others' may be problematized to their benefit. such as the mayor overseeing greenwich village.

[metamec]

Origineel geplaatst door Abaddon the Despoiler:

Origineel geplaatst door metamec:

No it has not. It was already popularised in those countries too. You are mistaken.

People were using that word for that meaning before the internet was even an idea.

I know. It's what I'm saying. :)

[76561199099449901]

Words change meaning
From what I've hard

♥♥♥♥♥♥:=
Bunde of sticks
Freshmen
[Freshman likely to be abused, in various ways, by older boys and staff]
(Degr) Homosexual person (presumably derived from the freshman scenario)

bonus
The Scandinavian name for the instrument bassoon (because it is a "bundle of sticks)