And,Do you know its 'proper' meaning?
2007-01-13 11:37:04 · 15 answers · asked by Sprinkle 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
The reason it has changed meaning is because English is the richest and most adaptable language in history. Meanings, spellings, they all change age by age it's just we notice them now because the ages are closer and better known.
A newt. Once the little critter was an ewt. Oh well, it coped.
As for a 'proper' meaning, I'm glad you used italics because there isn't one. All there is with language is the appropriate meaning for the time/context.
Language is a delight, and never more so when obvious examples of the way it lives, grows, and changes come up.
2007-01-13 11:53:57 · answer #1 · answered by ein 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The proper meaning is described on the wikipedia entry. Words are always changing their meanings and new words are being invented all the time! Spam used to be an unpleasant meat type substance but now it's also an internet-based source of irritation.
I heard on a TV documentary that in America, the spelling, pronounciation and meaning of many English words has been changed so much in the last decade that within the next 100years we will have completely seperate languages.
2007-01-13 11:45:56 · answer #2 · answered by Absynthe 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The use of the term gay, as it relates to homosexuality, arises from an extension of the sexualised connotation of "carefree and uninhibited", implying a willingness to disregard conventional or respectable sexual mores. Such usage is documented as early as the 1920s.
2007-01-13 12:28:10 · answer #3 · answered by Martha P 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The proper meaning is 'happy' lighthearted'. I think it got to mean homosexual cos in the bad old days when it was illegal to be gay, people who were had to speak in code to avoid being reported, battered, etc They adopted lots of ordinary and made up words and signals, dress codes etc. so they could recognise 'like' types and communicate freely. So maybe gay was one of those words.
2007-01-13 11:43:27 · answer #4 · answered by jeanimus 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
it hasn't changed. Now it has 2 meaning. You can be a gay gay- or a sad gay... who gives a s hit at the end of the day?!
2007-01-13 11:44:46 · answer #5 · answered by antagonist 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is one of those fabulous English words that has multiple meaning.....in the words of Larry Grayson..."what a gay day!"
2007-01-13 21:12:14 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
sure it means to be happy, and the word gay isn't the only one cool use to mean that something was cold, a bomb was something that blew up now it means that something is cool? lol
2007-01-13 11:50:51 · answer #7 · answered by dragonfly 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well originally it meant happy or care-free and then it changed to mean homosexual...now it can mean just about anything that my fellow idiots oppose...
2007-01-13 11:41:20 · answer #8 · answered by ~Grace~ 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Happy
are you gay? lol
2007-01-13 11:41:02 · answer #9 · answered by im2jaded04 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Fags usurped the true definition of the word. Later, they pulled that abortion of a term, "homophobia" out of their overused arses. According to the standard rules of derivation, a homophobe would be a person who exhibits an irrational fear of himself. Apparently, queers have a problem with the language of Shakespeare.
2007-01-13 12:15:12 · answer #10 · answered by Rick N 3 · 0⤊ 4⤋