[Ads-l] Pan = pansexual

[Jonathan Lighter]

In my high-school days in the early '60s, "queer" (n.), like "fag" and
"faggot," was frequently used in insulting boyish banter. But "homo" (n.)
was a serious accusation, presumably because no fudging about the meaning
was even conceivable.

JL

On Fri, May 29, 2015 at 10:47 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Pan = pansexual
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Then there's the usual difference between adjectives and nouns.  "A =
> homo", I venture to speculate, was always pejorative, even in "Are you a =
> homo?" On the other hand, "homo or hetero" below could even be a prefix: =
>  "Are you homo- or hetero- ?", with the "sexual" implicit.  Not =
> particularly pejorative in that case, I'd agree.  But the adjectival use =
> of "homo" is relatively rare.
>
> LH
>
> > On May 29, 2015, at 10:33 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >=20
> > On Fri, May 29, 2015 at 8:23 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >>=20
> >> On Fri, May 29, 2015 at 5:46 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> >>=20
> >>> the now-offensive "homo".
> >>=20
> >> When was it inoffensive? Was its use different from that of "lezzie"?
> >=20
> > I haven't looked too deeply into this, but my impression is that
> > "homo" could once be used as a not-necessarily-pejorative alternative
> > to "hetero". One early (reported) example occurs in _My Father and
> > Myself_, the memoir of J.R. Ackerley (1896-1967), in which he recalls
> > a conversation with a Swiss friend named Arnold Lunn in 1918:
> >=20
> > "Almost the first mischievous question he shot at me was 'Are you homo
> > or hetero?' I had never heard either term before; they were explained
> > and there seemed only one answer."
> > =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttps-3A__books.google.com_bo=
> oks-3Fid-3DhxerchUMqXAC-26pg-3DPA153&d=3DAwIBAw&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw=
> &r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=3D-51k3JYHDAY9TiZdxsa2j=
>
> AoI4Zk3nFqXJ11JAw9n_rU&s=3DKctaAHErEVuNGSO-AB3mQcNDz8uKA2GM8hK_TdZPJ4Q&e=3D=
> =20
> >=20
> > Then again, Ackerley describes Lunn as "a mocking and amusing fellow"
> > (who was hetero), so perhaps it was derogatory even then.
> >=20
> > --bgz
> >=20
> > --=20
> > Ben Zimmer
> > =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__benzimmer.com_&d=3DA=
> wIBAw&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRs=
> MFFaLQ&m=3D-51k3JYHDAY9TiZdxsa2jAoI4Zk3nFqXJ11JAw9n_rU&s=3DAiOpvXioV6KzITZ=
> Y3if98eJTWBt6k9okz_jhoKCZ4qc&e=3D=20
> >=20
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - =
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> org&d=3DAwIBAw&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsS=
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> cM7A4WbBsOgrEHJ-agAp55RZi1umgYGWeEM4I&e=3D=20
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