<span class="gmail_quote"><br><br></span><br><br><div><span class="q"><span class="gmail_quote">On 3/12/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Patrick, Peter L</b> <<a href="mailto:patrickp@essex.ac.uk" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
patrickp@essex.ac.uk</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">John's argument appears to imply
that either (a) the use of "That's so gay" derives from the
older senses of the adjective (meaning "carefree; colorful; jaunty;
lighthearted"), or (b) at any rate is not directly derived from the sense
meaning "(primarily male) homosexual". Both these arguments are
obviously wrong. </span></font></p></div></div></blockquote></span><div>John's question (not argument, just a question) implies nothing of the kind. I have no position whatsoever on the origins of either sense of "gay," since I have no evidence one way or the other. I don't find it relevant, moreover, that if you ask 8-9 year olds living in 21st century Britain what "gay" means, that the first thing they come up with is "man-love-man." The question concerns the leap of faith that if "gay" means one thing in one context, it must mean the same thing in all contexts. Historically speaking, this is, of course, nonsense, since "gay" the word was in use in other senses before it came to refer to homosexuality.
<br><br>Evidence? A quick Google search for "define:gay" produces the following: <font size="-1"><li>cheery: bright and pleasant; promoting a feeling of cheer; "a cheery hello"; "a gay sunny room"; "a sunny smile"
</li><li>full
of or showing high-spirited merriment; "when hearts were young and
gay"; "a poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company"-
Wordsworth; "the jolly crowd at the reunion"; "jolly old Saint Nick";
"a jovial old gentleman"; "have a merry Christmas"; "peals of merry
laughter"; "a mirthful laugh" </li><li>given to social pleasures often including dissipation; "led a gay Bohemian life"; "a gay old rogue with an eye for the ladies" </li><li>brave:
brightly colored and showy; "girls decked out in brave new dresses";
"brave banners flying"; "`braw' is a Scottish word"; "a dress a bit too
gay for her years"; "birds with gay plumage" </li><li>offering fun and gaiety; "a festive (or festal) occasion"; "gay and exciting night life"; "a merry evening" </li><li>homosexual or arousing homosexual desires
</li><li>homosexual: someone who practices homosexuality; having a sexual attraction to persons of the same sex <br><a href="http://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=X&start=0&oi=define&q=http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn%3Fs%3Dgay&usg=__R7tC1Ow1Nl-DFeLXHkm3VeSvbTg=" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
<font color="#008000">wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn</font></a></li></font><font size="-1"><li>Gay
originally meant in English happy. In modern usage, the term is often
applied interchangeably with homosexual, though there are important
differences between the terms. While "homosexual" relates specifically
to sexuality, the term "gay" is a political or social marker.
<br><a href="http://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=X&start=7&oi=define&q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay&usg=__bmZ3ZQGaUmEi5lL8RS_A6LFSOfI=" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
<font color="#008000">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay</font></a></li></font>
<font size="-1"><li>Of or relating to males who experience a sexual attraction toward, and responsiveness to, other males.<br><a href="http://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=X&start=8&oi=define&q=http://www.state.mi.us/msp/cjic/ucr/ucr_m.htm&usg=__lMvfsJ6sq4AADlgaoBIA58Ccb60=" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
<font color="#008000">www.state.mi.us/msp/cjic/ucr/ucr_m.htm</font></a></li></font><font size="-1"><li>(or,
shortened, gay)-a valley, a steep valley, a narrow gorge
(Brown-Driver-Briggs') 2011 Hinnom (hin-nome'); probably of foreign
origin; Hinnom, apparently a Jebusite: KJV-- Hinnom. (Strong's)<br><a href="http://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=X&start=9&oi=define&q=http://what-the-hell-is-hell.com/HellStats/hell_02.htm&usg=__jwVcjyaYUVe7SkWYrb2eKvvKFBY=" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
<font color="#008000">what-the-hell-is-hell.com/HellStats/hell_02.htm</font></a></li></font><font size="-1"><li>Homosexual; especially male homosexuals.<br><a href="http://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=X&start=10&oi=define&q=http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072986360/student_view0/chapter15/glossary.html&usg=__WWo_5ZJjOKCXDvlArUfQ-UWZnq0=" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
<font color="#008000">highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072986360/student_view0/chapter15/glossary.html</font></a></li></font><font size="-1"><li>A colloquial description of a homosexual or lesbian person.<br><a href="http://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=X&start=11&oi=define&q=http://www.12-12-12.org/bookappi.htm&usg=__AVm5uoCPIJVPqQrgpY7rN_XREas=" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
<font color="#008000">www.12-12-12.org/bookappi.htm</font></a></li></font><font size="-1"><li>Movies/titles that feature homosexual males engaging in sexual acts with another male.<br><a href="http://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=X&start=12&oi=define&q=http://www.24houradultdvd.com/category.htm&usg=__Umtq7M0vy3fLlWSIHcjiBCrE02c=" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
<font color="#008000">www.24houradultdvd.com/category.htm</font></a></li></font><br>The current use of "gay" with reference to homosexuality is manifestly derivative of earlier usages with no such references. And the fact that a sample of British school kids now act as though that were the primary reference is only a data point, by no means definitive evidence that "gay" must mean homosexual. To assert that it does is, I believe, a nice example of reification, arguably a nasty bit of stereotyping and essentializing.
<br><br>Please note that in my initial remark I did not deny that my daughter's usage might be derived from another, more prejudicial usage. I am simply raising the possibility that we may, indeed, live in a world where, in Grant McCracken's eloquent phrase, "meaning flows," and attempts to make large deductions from what things must mean, as if meaning were fixed for all time, are inevitably problematic.
<br><br>Admittedly, if I am right, this will be hard on those who substitute indignation for scholarship--the old-fashioned, hard-slogging kind that could actually demonstrate shifts in meaning across time and space empirically. The borscht-belt humor isn't in the usage of "gay." It is, instead, in the grave and somber "analyses" of a new generation of linguistic puritans, straight men (WARNING: vaudeville meaning) who generate laughter by failing to grasp the jokes going on around them.
<br> </div>Cheers,<br></div><div><span class="e" id="q_111469b0d48b3c97_3"><br>-- <br>John McCreery<br>The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN<br>Tel. +81-45-314-9324<br><a href="http://www.wordworks.jp/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://www.wordworks.jp/</a>
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