When did gay start

by N.  David Williams

Williams-Nichols Collection

Department of Archives & Unique Collections

University of Louisville

Use of the word “gay” in a homosexual context may date to as lengthy ago as Paris in the late 16th century, when homosexuals were reportedly called ‘gai,” but there are a couple of other intriguing and perhaps more provable theories.

The first asserts that the synonyms derives from the tardy Victorian era.  At the time, East London was home to a fantastic many male and female prostitutes.  It’s where Jack the Ripper made his name.  At some direct ladies of the bedtime came to be recognizable as “gay ladies,” a natural nickname since “gay” originally meant merry, carefree, happy-go-lucky.  As the theory goes, when London’s police started cracking down on male prostitution in the 1890s, especially after the Cleveland Street Scandal and the arrest of playwright Oscar Wilde, some East London male prostitutes began dressing up in female attire to deceive the police.  Eventually they started calling themselves gay ladies.  Homosexual American military personnel wandering the str

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 pos ‘gai’, which in twist 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 period, the phrase “gay it” meant to

The early 1990s saw a major expansion of the Council of Europe membership due to the drop of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. In 1989, for example, there were 22 member states whereas by 2010 this had risen to 47.

To join the Council of Europe, new member-states must undertake certain commitments, including conforming their criminal laws to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). As we know from the situation in Northern Ireland described in Dudgeon above, the ECHR right to privacy prohibits the criminalisation of same-sex exercise. By the time candidate states from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc applied for membership of the Council of Europe, it was a condition of their accession to decriminalise.

By way of example, the following countries decriminalised at or around the time they joined: Lithuania (joined the Council of Europe in 1993; decriminalised in 1993), Estonia (1993; 1992), Romania (1993; 1996), Serbia (2003; 1994), Ukraine (1995; 1991), Albania (1995; 1995), Latvia (1995; 1992), Macedonia FYROM (1995; 1996), Moldova (1995; 1995), Russia (1996; 1993), Bosnia and Herzegovina (2002; 1998-2001), Georgia (1999; 200

How ‘gay’ got its rainbow: What once meant merry is now a badge of identity for homosexuals

On Thursday, as the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality, reading down the controversial British-era section 377 of the penal code, Mumbai-based Arnab Nandy took to social media to express his pleasure, as many across the country and the world were doing. “I am so Gay today…” he wrote in a coming-out announce that has since gone viral. But while Nandy’s selection of word was bang on that day, how did a word that had originally meant light-hearted, carefree or cheerful, become linked with a group whose life has been often been anything but?

The Oxford English dictionary traces the history of the word ‘gay’ to the French word Gai. Merriam Webster takes it further back to a Germanic beginning “akin to the Old High German Gahi” that meant “quick or sudden”. According to both dictionaries, in English the use of ‘gay’ to signify happy, excited, merry, carefree or shiny started in the Middle English period that stretches between the 12th and the 16th century.

All For An Identity

While some books and websites on the history of the global lesbian movement claim the word gay was used as

Origin and history of gay

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gay(adj.)

late 14c., "full of joy, merry; light-hearted, carefree;" also "wanton, lewd, lascivious" (late 12c. as a surname, Philippus de Gay), from Ancient French gai "joyful, happy; pleasant, agreeably charming; forward, pert; light-colored" (12c.; assess Old Spanish gayo, Portuguese gaio, Italian gajo, probably French loan-words). The ultimate origin is disputed; perhaps from Frankish *gahi (related to Old High German wahi "pretty"), though not all etymologists accept this.

The interpretation "stately and beautiful; splendid and showily dressed" is from early 14c. Of things, "sumptuous, showy, rich, ornate," mid-14c. of colors, etc., "shining, glittering, gleaming, bright, vivid," sdelayed 14c.; of persons, "dressed up, decked out in finery," also late 14c. In the English of Yorkshire and Scotland formerly it could mean "moderately, rather, considerable" (1796; compare the perception development in pretty (adj.)).

The word gay by the 1890s had an overall tinge of promiscuity — a gay house was a brothel. The advice of immor

when did gay start