Re: query: distorted languages?
| From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, August 30, 2000, 5:35 |
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DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:
> These seem dissimilar examples to me. While I don't know all the ins and
> outs of the etymology of "gay", I should think this is just lexical shift.
Partly. The word actually acquired the sense "homosexual" as early as
the 1940's, where "gay" is recorded as prison slang for "homosexual".
It merely remained out of the mainstream until the 1970's. But, once
the meaning "homosexual" had entered mainstream English, *then* it
quickly ceased to be used for "happy".
--
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I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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