gay

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   given to social pleasures often including dissipation

   They led a gay Bohemian life!

2. 2
   adj

   full of or showing high-spirited merriment

   It was back when hearts were young and gay!

3. 3
   noun

   someone who is homosexual

   Is your friend homosexual?

4. 4
   adj

   Homosexual:

   Cliff is gay, but his twin brother is straight.

5. 5
   adj

   Used to express dislike: lame, uncool, stupid, burdensome, contemptible, generally bad.

   This game is gay; let’s play a different one.

6. 6
   adj

   Happy, joyful, and lively.

   The Gay Science

7. 7
   adj

   Quick, fast.

   I went a gay shack, / For it started to rain.

8. 8
   adj

   Festive, bright, or colourful.

   Pennsylvania Dutch include the plain folk and the gay folk.

Etymology

From Middle English gay, from Old French gai (“joyful, laughing, merry”), usually thought to be a borrowing of Old Occitan gai (“impetuous, lively”), from Gothic *𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍃 (*gaheis, “impetuous”), merging with earlier Old French jai ("merry"; see jay), from Frankish *gāhi; both from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudden”). This is possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- (“to stride, step”), from *ǵʰeh₁- (“to leave”), but Kroonen rejects this derivation and treats the Germanic word as having no known etymology. cognates and sense derivation Cognate with Dutch gauw (“fast, quickly”),…