"gay" again

[Wilson Gray]

Basically OT, but WTF? A fellow trainee who was from Illinois, named
Gewinner - in 1959, the first person that I ever heard use the term, "dork"
- explained that he had originally planned to join the Marines. However,
when he spoke to the Marines, the only thing that they would promise him was
sixteen weeks of infantry training. The Army promised him that he could go
to Officer Candidate School after only eight weeks of training. So ... I
lost track of him, but I'd be amazed to find out that he made it to OCS. The
Army would promise you anything to get you to sign up. That was only one of
the reasons that people said, "You'll be sorry!" and "The Army sucks!"

-Wilson

On 8/1/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "gay" again
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> According to several USMC novelists of the Vietnam era, the
> drill-instructor phrase was "Are you queer for my gear?" Yet I find only one
> Googlit, on Usenet.
>
>   JL
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: "gay" again
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> When I was in basic training, "be queer for" was used as an insult
> directed
> at anyone who slipped up and locked eyes with a member of the cadre:
> "What're you looking at me for, soldier? You queer for me?" This was a
> question with no correct answer. Obviously, yes would be the wrong answer,
> but if you said no, it was an insult to the cadre-member, implying that
> you
> found him physically beneath your standard of masculine beauty. Your only
> recourse was to say nothing and drop down and give him twenty push-ups
> without waiting to be told.
>
> You were supposed to use the thousand-yard stare and look *through* the
> members of the training cadre, not *at* them, whenever their gaze happened
> to fall upon you.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 7/31/06, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: "Arnold M. Zwicky"
> > Subject: Re: "gay" again
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Jul 29, 2006, at 2:59 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> >
> > > Not sure if this has been noted here before, but one recent semantic
> > > development on the "gay" front is the construction "be gay for" =
> > > 'have an unseemly or exuberant affection for (someone or
> > > something)'...
> >
> > i don't recall having seen this one -- i might just not have noticed
> > it -- but i have noticed "be queer for" in this sense. an
> > interesting sense development: the component of attraction remains,
> > while the sexual component vanishes.
> >
> > arnold
> >
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> the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon
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>
> Frederick Douglass
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--
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out
the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon
them.

Frederick Douglass

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