Source etymology 1 · variant 1/2
Original entry ↗Only possessing sexual and/or romantic attraction towards people one perceives to be the same sex or gender as oneself. · Of a man, only romantically and/or sexually attracted to other men. · Tending to partner or mate with other individuals of the same sex. · Between two or more persons perceived to be of the same sex or gender as each other.
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”), Westphalian Low German gau, gai (“fast, quick”), German jäh (“abrupt, sudden”). Anatoly Liberman, following Frank Chance and Harri Meier, believes Old French gai was instead a native development from Latin vagus (“wandering, inconstant, flighty”), with *[w] > [g] as in French gaine. The sense of homosexual (first recorded no later than 1937 by Cary Grant in the film Bringing Up Baby, and possibly earlier in 1922 in the poem "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" by Gertrude Stein) was shortened from earlier gay boy ("young male prostitute") and gay cat ("homosexual boy") in underworld and prison slang, itself first attested about 1935, but used earlier for a young tramp or hobo attached to an older one. Pejorative usage is due to hostility towards homosexuality. The sense of ‘upright’, used in reference to a dog’s tail, probably derives from the ‘happy’ sense of the word.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Inherited-form mentiongayenm
- Derivation mentiongaifro
- Derivation mentiongaipro
- Derivation mention*𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍃got
- Derivation mentionjaifro
- Derivation mention*ganhuzgem-pro
- Derivation mention*ǵʰengʰ-ine-pro
- Cognate mentiongauwnl
- Cognate mentiongaunds
- Cognate mentionjähde
- Derivation mentionvagusla
- Cognate mentiongainefr
This page abbreviates 15 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "ety",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":inh",
"3": "enm:gay",
"id": "homosexual"
},
"expansion": "[Appendix:Glossary#loanword|Borrowed]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"children\" : [ { \"keyword_abbrev\" : \"bor.\", \"keyword_label\" : \"Borrowed from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"children\" : [ { \"keyword_abbrev\" : \"der.\", \"keyword_label\" : \"Derived from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"children\" : [ { \"keyword_abbrev\" : \"der.\", \"keyword_label\" : \"Derived from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"children\" : [ ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Indo-European\", \"term\" : \"*ǵʰengʰ-\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"ine-pro\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"derived\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*ganhuz\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"gem-pro\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"derived\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Old Occitan\", \"term\" : \"gai\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"pro\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"bor\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Old French\", \"term\" : \"gai\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"fro\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"bor\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Middle English\", \"term\" : \"gay\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"enm\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"gay\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-id=\"homosexual\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"gay\" id=\"English:_homosexual\">"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "gay"
},
"expansion": "Middle English gay"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "fro",
"3": "gai",
"4": "",
"5": "joyful, laughing, merry"
},
"expansion": "Old French gai (“joyful, laughing, merry”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "pro",
"3": "gai",
"4": "",
"5": "impetuous, lively"
},
"expansion": "Old Occitan gai (“impetuous, lively”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "got",
"3": "*𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍃",
"4": "",
"5": "impetuous"
},
"expansion": "Gothic *𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍃 (*gaheis, “impetuous”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "fro",
"3": "jai"
},
"expansion": "Old French jai"
},
{
"name": "gloss",
"args": {
"1": "\"merry\"; see jay"
},
"expansion": "(\"merry\"; see jay)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "frk",
"3": "*gāhi"
},
"expansion": "Frankish *gāhi"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gem-pro",
"3": "*ganhuz"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Germanic *ganhuz"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*ǵʰengʰ-",
"4": "",
"5": "to stride, step"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- (“to stride, step”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nl",
"2": "gauw",
"3": "",
"4": "fast, quickly"
},
"expansion": "Dutch gauw (“fast, quickly”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nds",
"2": "gau"
},
"expansion": "Low German gau"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "de",
"2": "jäh",
"3": "",
"4": "abrupt, sudden"
},
"expansion": "German jäh (“abrupt, sudden”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "fro",
"3": "gai"
},
"expansion": "Old French gai"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "la",
"3": "vagus",
"4": "",
"5": "wandering, inconstant, flighty"
},
"expansion": "Latin vagus (“wandering, inconstant, flighty”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "fr",
"2": "gaine"
},
"expansion": "French gaine"
},
{
"name": "ety",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":inh",
"3": "enm:gay",
"id": "homosexual"
},
"expansion": ""
}
],
"links": [
[
"gay",
"gay#Middle_English"
],
[
"gai",
"gai#Old_French"
],
[
"gai",
"gai#Old_Occitan"
],
[
"*𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍃",
"Reconstruction:Gothic/𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍃"
],
[
"jai",
"jai#Old_French"
],
[
"jay",
"jay#English"
],
[
"*gāhi",
"Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/gāhi"
],
[
"*ganhuz",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/ganhuz"
],
[
"*ganhwaz",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/ganhwaz"
],
[
"*ǵʰengʰ-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/ǵʰengʰ-"
],
[
"*ǵʰeh₁-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/ǵʰeh₁-"
],
[
"gauw",
"gauw#Dutch"
],
[
"gau",
"gau#Low_German"
],
[
"gai",
"gai#Low_German"
],
[
"jäh",
"jäh#German"
],
[
"gai",
"gai#Old_French"
],
[
"vagus",
"vagus#Latin"
],
[
"gaine",
"gaine#French"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [
{
"lang": "Burmese",
"lang_code": "my",
"word": "ဂေး",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "ge:"
},
{
"lang": "Cantonese",
"lang_code": "yue",
"word": "基",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "gei¹",
"descendants": [
{
"lang": "Mandarin",
"lang_code": "cmn",
"word": "基",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "jī"
}
]
},
{
"lang": "Catalan",
"lang_code": "ca",
"word": "gai",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Chichewa",
"lang_code": "ny",
"word": "ugeyi",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Esperanto",
"lang_code": "eo",
"word": "geja",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"word": "gay",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "German",
"lang_code": "de",
"word": "gay",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Greek",
"lang_code": "el",
"word": "γκέι",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "gkéi"
},
{
"lang": "Irish",
"lang_code": "ga",
"word": "aerach",
"tags": [
"calque",
"calque"
]
},
{
"lang": "Italian",
"lang_code": "it",
"word": "gay",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang_code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Japanese",
"lang_code": "ja",
"word": "ゲイ",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "gei"
},
{
"lang": "Mandarin",
"lang_code": "cmn",
"word": "gay",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "gèi"
},
{
"lang": "Mandarin",
"lang_code": "cmn",
"word": "給",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Mandarin",
"lang_code": "cmn",
"word": "给",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"tags": [
"Simplified-Chinese"
]
},
{
"lang": "Polish",
"lang_code": "pl",
"word": "gej",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Portuguese",
"lang_code": "pt",
"word": "gay",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Portuguese",
"lang_code": "pt",
"word": "guei",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed",
"adapted spelling"
]
},
{
"lang": "Romanian",
"lang_code": "ro",
"word": "gay",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Spanish",
"lang_code": "es",
"word": "gay",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Tamil",
"lang_code": "ta",
"word": "கேய்",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "kēy"
},
{
"lang": "Telugu",
"lang_code": "te",
"word": "గే",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "gē"
},
{
"lang": "Thai",
"lang_code": "th",
"word": "เกย์",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "gee"
},
{
"lang": "Turkish",
"lang_code": "tr",
"word": "gey",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
}
],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "adj",
"glosses": [
"Only possessing sexual and/or romantic attraction towards people one perceives to be the same sex or gender as oneself.",
"Of a man, only romantically and/or sexually attracted to other men.",
"Tending to partner or mate with other individuals of the same sex.",
"Between two or more persons perceived to be of the same sex or gender as each other."
],
"tags": [
"broadly"
],
"recordId": "eceaa141b7eb934cb593b59a468083f0c1454296e988989c88ca62c34accb7a1",
"rawRecordSha256": "c5bc7713b7c42f99a3c185b820c7d568d2e1b616c02b81f0a4e83372fccd70a6",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 1427783
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 15,
"glosses": 0
}
}