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Gay, to Be or Not to Be

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Submitted By angdue414
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Gay: to be or not to be….

“That’s so gay” is often heard these days among the younger generation and they aren’t saying something is happy or bright looking. The saying is more negative and is intended as disapproval. The word gay came to mind right away when choosing my definition word. I see and hear many people use this word in various ways. When I think of the word gay two definitions come to mind, one being a homosexual and the other being joyful, however there are other ways to describe the word gay. I had a teacher in Junior High with the first name Gay. Of course my classmates thought it was funny and I admit I did too. Who would name their kid a homosexual? That inspired me to look more into the word gay at that time and I found all the other meanings to the word. Knowing all the meanings to gay, has helped me with my job, since the older generation still uses gay as meaning joyful and happy. To this day, my teacher was the only Gay named person I have met.

The word "gay" arrived in English during the 12th century from Old French gai, most likely deriving ultimately from a Germanic source. For most of its life in English, the word's primary meaning was "joyful", "carefree", "bright and showy", and the word was very commonly used with this meaning in speech and literature. (Dictionary.com) It was apparently not until the 20th century that the word began to be used to mean specifically "homosexual", although it had earlier acquired sexual connotations. (Wikipedia.org) In recent years the word gay has been used in a connotative way. The younger generation, mostly, uses the phrase “That’s so gay” which means that something is stupid or rubbish. In this use, gay no longer means homosexual or joyful. It is more of a meaning of when someone disapproves. Another form of Gay that not many people hear of these days is a female and male given

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