"Sissies, fairies, pansies gay"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Ben's date of "1749" for Shenstone's ode may be correct, but ECCO's first
printed occurrence is in 1758.

JL

On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 12:23 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Sissies, fairies, pansies gay"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A check of GB shows (most irritatingly) that "pansies gay" was something of
> a cliche' description of flowering pansies ever since William Shenstone
> wrote his oft-reprinted "Irregular Ode after Sickness" in 1758.
>
> "Gay pansies" is the more prosaic and more frequent form (1717: ECCO).
>
> So "gay" means "gay" even in this case.
>
> Whether it also means "homosexual" seems unknowable.
>
> So the brackets must remain. It does seem possible that the old association
> of "gay" with "pansies" may have helped promote the newer sense - a little.
>
> JL
>
> On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 11:44 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: "Sissies, fairies, pansies gay"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 2/17/2013 07:34 AM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
> > >...
> > >1933 _Baltimore Afro-American_ 21 Oct. 17 (ProQuest Historical
> > >Newspapers)  The products engendered by union of these decadents of
> > >changing sexes is generally an unenviable type of degeneracy
> > >characterized by homicidal or homosexual proclivities.  Sissies,
> > >fairies, pansies gay, The woods are full of them today.
> >
> > And it's a much pithier verse than N. Coward's of 1939:
> > "Everyone's here and frightfully gay, Nobody cares what people say,
> > Though the Riviera Seems really much queerer Than Rome at its height."
> > (Rivierer/quairer??)
> >
> > I am imagining a musical comedy satire on "Little Red Riding
> > Hood."  The writers of "Forbidden Broadway" restage Sondheim's "Into
> > the Woods."  The recurrent sung motif: "The woods are full of them
> > today."  The Broadway types for the Big Bad Wolf are endless.  I
> > start with Liberace.
> >
> > Joel
> >
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