"Gay" in 1713

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED has Huck's sense under def. 2.b., though with an annoying gap between
1611 and 1863.

The 1863 writer is Walt Whitman's brother.  Not that there's anything wrong
with that.

JL

On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 2:23 PM, Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at att.net> wrote:

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> Poster:       Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "Gay" in 1713
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>  On Jul 8, 2010, at 11:42 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
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> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: "Gay" in 1713
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 10:55 AM -0400 7/8/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >> This is presumably a looong stretch, but ---
> >>
> >> From The Tatler and Guardian, 1713 April 3 (no. 20), page 32, col. 2
> >> {GB full view]:
> >>
> >> All gallantry and fashion, one would imagine, should rise out of the
> >> religion and laws of that nation wherein they prevail; but alas! in
> >> this kingdom, gay characters, and those which lead in the pleasure
> >> and fascinations of the fashionable world, are such as are readiest
> >> to practise crimes the most abhorrent to nature, and contradictory to
> >> our faith.
> >>
> >> At that time, "crimes the most abhorrent to nature" were sexual acts
> >> which could not lead to conception, thus including sodomy,
> >> bestiality, and masturbation (as well as intercourse with a girl too
> >> young to conceive, defined in some laws as age 10).
> >
> > There's a long history of "gay", through the 19th c., being used to
> > describe dissipation or prostitutes ("gay girl/woman") and their
> > life.  Or more broadly, as in Farmer & Henley (1890-1904):
> >
> > GAY
> > (colloquial)
> > 1.  dissipated; specifically, given to venery
> >
> > cites back to Chaucer "Some gay girl...Hath brought you thus upon the
> > very trot"
> >
> > 1754 Adventurer, No. 124  The old gentleman, whose character I cannot
> > better express than in the fashionable phrase which has been
> > contrived to palliate false principles and dissolute manners, had
> > been a gay man, and was well acquainted with the town.
> >
> > [also GAYING INSTRUMENT = 'the penis']
> >
> > No direct antecedent of 'homosexual' meaning, except sub specie of
> > "unacceptable lifestyle choices"...
> >
> > LH
> >
> >> Is this some kind of antecedent to "gay" = 'homosexual"?  (In the
> >> above, "characters" means "persons".)  On the other hand, the OED
> >> cautions me:
> >>
> >> "A number of quotations have been suggested as early attestations of
> >> this sense (see a sample below). It is likely that, although there
> >> may be innuendo in some cases, these have been interpreted
> >> anachronistically in the light either of the context (for example the
> >> disguise as a homosexual of the protagonist of quot. 1941[1]), or of
> >> knowledge about an author's sexuality."
> >>
> >> Joel
> ~~~~~~~~~~~
> Tom & Huck use "gay" often in anticipation of some proposed
> adventure.  In their dialect it has no sexual overtones, but seems to
> mean exciting, "grand", "bully," definitely approving.
> AM
>
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