"gay" in "Bringing Up Baby"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I can't speak for OED, but see HDAS.

JL

On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 1:16 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "gay" in "Bringing Up Baby"
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> I think the square brackets here mean that the usage is uncertain.  To me
> it seems likely that David is referring to homosexuality, but others, such
> as Ron Butters, have argued against this.  Gary Simes has collected various
> pre-Legman citations from the 1920s and 1930s, but the OED seems to be
> conservative about accepting them.  Curiously, for decades the OED went with
> a highly questionable 1935 citation as their first use.
>
> Fred
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Joel
> S. Berson [Berson at ATT.NET]
> Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 1:09 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: "gay" in "Bringing Up Baby"
>
> Having just seen "Bringing Up Baby" again, I am surprised that the
> OED can continue to, in its June 2010 draft revision, bracket the
> following quotation as, presumably, "interpreted anachronistically".
>
> 1938 D. NICHOLS & H. WILDE Bringing up Baby (film script, final
> revision) 35 David..comes on..in negligee... Aunt: Why are you
> wearing these clothes?.. David: Because I just went gay, all of a sudden.
>
> If it is not taken as specifically referring to a person as a
> homosexual (sense 4.d.(a)), it seems at least to be "(of a ... way of
> life, etc.) of or relating to homosexuals" (sense 4.d(b).  (Unless
> this use is taken only as cross-dressing?)  And a few of the later,
> but still bracketed, quotations, seem also to fit 4.d(b).
>
> Joel
>
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