gay

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Sexually attracted to people of the same sex; homosexual.

   He came out as gay to his family last year.

2. 2
   noun

   A person who is homosexual.

   The parade was a celebration for gays and their supporters.

3. 3
   adj

   Happy and full of cheerful energy (old-fashioned).

   The old song describes a gay and carefree summer.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Gay entered English in the 12th century from Old French gai, initially meaning “light-hearted, carefree, or cheerfully exuberant.” By the 17th century it could imply devotion to pleasure or loose morality, and in slang it could describe a prostitute. Its now-prominent sense “homosexual” is clearly documented from the 1920s, though it may have arisen earlier.

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”),…

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