"gay" again
Arnold M. Zwicky
zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Mon Jul 31 17:23:05 UTC 2006
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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