"sleep gay"?

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Tue Mar 14 16:58:21 UTC 2006


On Mar 14, 2006, at 6:44 AM, Larry Horn wrote:

> ... Being totally unfamiliar with the collocation "sleep gay" (=
> 'engage
> in same-sex sex'), which combines an extended euphemism with some
> interesting syntax (note the non-parallel with, say, "sleep naked"),
> I tried tracking it down on Nexis (major papers, all dates), and sure
> enough this is the first actual hit for either "sleep gay", "sleeping
> gay" or "slept gay".  There didn't appear to be any relevant google
> hits, but I confess I didn't check out the several hundred largely
> unparsable sequences of this type.  Does this represent a new
> construction, or just one emerging from the collocational closet?

i can't see this as an instance of any (currently productive)
construction.  but it does have a family resemblance to "meet cute",
which we've discussed here on occasion.

arnold

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