gaydirt -- new word?

[Baker, John]

        The Google Groups reference is from the soc.motss ("members of the same sex") newsgroup, so that is still a usage within the gay community.  I don't know when the gay community first began using "gaydar" (though Merriam-Webster has 1982), but the 1993 Post example is as good a date as any for the spread into wider usage.  The New York Times also has a 1993 example, from later that year.

        "Gaydar" is obviously formed in reference to radar ("radio detecting and ranging," M-W has 1941) and sonar ("sound navigation ranging," M-W has 1945).

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Arnold M. Zwicky
Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2004 9:55 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: gaydirt -- new word?


On Oct 3, 2004, at 6:09 PM, John Baker wrote:

>         Google Groups has from 3/22/1989:...
>
>         Washington Post has from 4/23/1993:...

two different questions:  when did "gaydar" arise and spread within the
gay community, and when did it spread into wider usage (insofar as it
has)?

i know how fallible memory is, but i'm pretty sure i was using the word
in the 70s.  (i became active in gay rights groups in 1971 and hung out
with gayfolk from about 1964.)  lord knows i'm not going to try to go
through my correspondence from those days...

arnold