When did the word 'gay' lose it's meaning and turn to homosexual?

Answer 1

Hard to pin down something like this. The meaning would have changed gradually from its original meaning of "full of joy" to "addicted to social pleasures" to "leading a loose/immoral life" to "homosexual".

The earliest recorded use of it meaing "homosexual" are in
N. Ersine's 'Underworld & Prison Slang' (1935), in which he lists "geycat" as "a homosexual boy."
THen it appears in 1951, in E. Lambert's 'Sleeping-House Party': "In a way it was an odd threesome. It occurred to me that Esther rather hung round our two gay boys."

The clearest first use though (in my opinion) of the exact word being used with precisely this meaing is in 1955. This is is P. Wilderblood's 'Against Law' I. 23, in which the author says "Most of the officers at the station had been ‘gay’..an American euphemism for homosexual."

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

In addition to its original and continuing senses of “merry, lively” and “bright or showy,” gay has had various senses dealing with sexual conduct since the 17th century. A gay woman was a prostitute, a gay man a womanizer, a gay house a brothel. This sexual world included homosexuals too, and gay as an adjective meaning “homosexual” goes back at least to the early 1900s. After World War II, as social attitudes toward sexuality began to change, gay was applied openly by homosexuals to themselves, first as an adjective and later as a noun. Today, the noun often designates only a male homosexual: gays and lesbians. The word has ceased to be slang and is not used disparagingly. Homosexual as a noun is sometimes used only in reference to a male.
Check the etymology at http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gay

Answer 3

I think it was late 50,s early 60,s. I can remember an advert for a Laxative on the radio in Australia, with a ditty " Happy and gay, the Laxette way".. The laxette was a small square piece of chocolate.
Also there was a popular song with the word Gay meaning happy..
The "Gay "community used it long before that, As all the other words for them were derogatory.

Answer 4

The primary meaning of the word gay has changed dramatically during the 20th century—though the change evolved from earlier usages. It derives via the Old French gai, probably from a Germanic source.[1] The word originally meant "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy" and was very commonly used with this meaning in speech and literature. For example, the title of the 1938 ballet aptly named Gaîté Parisienne ("Parisian Gaiety"), a patchwork compiled from Jacques Offenbach's operettas, illustrates this connotation, and the optimistic 1890s are still often referred to as the Gay Nineties.

The word started to acquire sexual connotations in the late 17th century, being used with meaning "addicted to pleasures and dissipations". This was by extension from the primary meaning of "carefree": implying "uninhibited by moral constraints". By the late nineteenth century the term "gay life" was a well-established euphemism for prostitution and other forms of extramarital sexual behavior that were perceived as immoral.

The first name Gay is still occasionally encountered, usually as a female name although the spelling is often altered to Gaye. (795th most common in the United States, according to the 1990 US census[2]). It was also used as a male first name. The first name of the popular male Irish television presenter Gabriel Byrne was always abbreviated as "Gay", as in the title of his radio show The Gay Byrne Show. It can also be used as a short form of the female name Gaynell and as a short form of the male names Gaylen and Gaylord. The "Gaiety" was also a common name for places of entertainment. One of Oscar Wilde's favourite venues in Dublin was the Gaiety Theatre.

Answer 5

In the UK I first heard the expression which had to be explained to me in 1962. Because homosexuality was illegal in those days homosexuals developed a 'secret' language to discuss their proclivities. I believe the word 'gay' had been in use amongst homosexuals since the 1930s

Answer 6

Using the words in their orignial context is seen as un-cool in modern society. I don't know exactly when the term 'gay' was used to describe homosexual more so than happy, but maybe people started using it to describe homosexual because it was easier and shorter to say, and as a result of this, people didn't want to get it mixed up with the 'happy' gay. But I don't know for sure to be honest.....it's just my guess.

Answer 7

Originally the word 'gay' meant happy and it still does. It's just that describing happiness as gay has fallen out of fashion

Answer 8

when the gay people used to march in the streets and protest for homosexual rites and equality
GAY was their slogan it stands for

Good
As
You

meaning that the gay people were as good/worthy as straight! true story we learnt about this is school and read up on it a little its interesting