I suspect this is an example of the wonderful way words change their
meaning.
Remember when the lovely old word 'gay' was hijacked by all those
dubiously moustachioed fellows of exotic proclivities? (Of course, prior
to that, it was mainly used in Victorian times to denote prostitutes and
similar.)
Well, here in the UK (where I suspect the original post originated),
'gay' is now used by young people to mean 'rubbish' or 'crap.' So it's
probably not aimed at a particular sexual orientation at all.
This constant changing of the meaning of words must be a source of great
pleasure to anyone who is truly homophobic (from the Greek, homo=the
same, phobic=fear : fear of the same).
.
Re: A Highland folk tale. - Macuisnes fiddler. ... see/talk about faeries anymore in the way that they did in times of yore.... I suspect it has something to do with the meaning of ...gay" has a whole new spin these days. ... was outraged when I explained its new meaning.... (soc.culture.scottish)
Re: Help needed with expletives ..."Gay" to mean homosexual always ...primarily meaning what it was intended to mean. ... to homosexuals as "gay", and was therefore supposed ... as a curse word, from the very beginning. ... (rec.arts.sf.composition)
Re: Help needed with expletives ... bit gay, Mum' about anything that doesn't mean their exacting ... their homophobia to a gay person, or even reject the friendship of a ... tries to dictate the language her children use out of the home. ... of a word on the grounds that the words original meaning must be ... (rec.arts.sf.composition)
Re: I think New Jersey got this one right ... Your mistake is in forgetting that words are merely vessels to convey the meaning of the author of the words. ... Here's a comment i made in reply to a judge's ruling on gay marriage last year: ...Spaceships and other technologies that we now have were 'alien' to 1947 legislators because they did not yet exist. ... Since they didn't exist, and since a spaceship doesn't duplicate modes of travel that did exist, we can't know with reasonable certainty what the legislators would have thought about them re constitutional protections (that isn't true of computers and repro technology, some types of which did exist in 1947, but lumping those with spaceships reflects confusion on the judge's part). ... (rec.sport.football.college)
Re: On topic or off topic (was Re: The cost of Mental Health) ... I am not denying that homosexual people adopted the word as less objectionable term for themselves than was currently used, but the wrod *gay* has had homosexual undertones for a long long time anyway - it wasn't as if homosexual people looked throught he dictionary and thought 'gay' sounded better than deregatory words that were currently in fashion and stole it. ... However, even if I mean no insult at all by it, I am aware enogh of its popular meaning and its negative connotations within the wider community *not* to use it at all. ... My sense is that as long as homosexuals sweep that word under the carpet ... The wogs knew they were wogs and the skips knew they were skips, and this distinction was how we self organised into spontaneous teams. ... (soc.religion.quaker)
