gay = bright, lively, cheerful

[Mark Mandel]

I'm not surprised at all. Lavender is the name of a plant, or a family of
plants, and there isn't any real alternative for the word. What's more, this
is the *word*, not the color (that is, not the color itself; the name of the
color is another use of the word, thank you very much White Knight
endofdigression).

   - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender
   - http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lavender

m a m

On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 5:05 PM, <RonButters at aol.com> wrote:

> The use of GAY in any sense other than (1) 'homosexual' or (2) the slang
> usage 'undesirable' seems to have all but passed from the scene except in
> archaic,
> frozen uses (e.g., "Don we now our gay apparel").  I was therefore
> somewhat
> surprised to find the following in an advertisement for nursery plants in
> an
> insert in my local newspaper, The Orlando Sentinel (the insert was a
> slick-paper
> coupon national advertising insert that I assume was put into newspapers
> throughout the USA):
>
> "... Produces Masses of Blue-Violet Flowering Spires ..."
>
> The plant being thus marketed is "hardy lavender"; the marketer is Spring
> River Nurseries, Hartford, Michigan. While the color "lavender" has, like
> the
> word "gay" itself, long been associated with homosexuality, the ad shows
> no sign
> of intending any sort of association with queer subculture.
>
> ADS-L will not let me attach a pdf of the actual ad, but I will be happy
> to
> send a copy to anyone who asks for it. The ad does not appear on the
> Spring
> River Nurseries web page.
>
>
> **************
> Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video
> on AOL Living.
>
> (
> http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598
> )
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
Mark Mandel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org