When another character asks about why he is wearing that, he responds an ad-libbed line “Because I just went gay”. Cary Grant, in one scene, ended up having to wear a lady’s feathery robe. Bringing Up Baby in 1938 was the first film to use the word gay to mean homosexual.
Because even mentioning someone was a homosexual was so offensive at the time in England, people who were thought to be gay were referred to as “sporty” with girls and “artistic” for boys.
In terms of the sexual meaning of the word, a “gay man” no longer just meant a man who had sex with a lot of women, but now started to refer to men who had sex with other men. Those were just accepted definitions, along with the other meanings of the word.Īround the 1920s and 1930s, however, the word started to have a new meaning. With these new definitions, the original meanings of “carefree”, “joyful”, and “bright and showy” were still around so the word was not exclusively used to refer to prostitutes or a promiscuous man. Also at this time, the phrase “gay it” meant to have sex. This is an extension of one of the original meanings of “carefree”, meaning more or less uninhibited.įast-forward to the 19th century and the word gay referred to a woman who was a prostitute and a gay man was someone who slept with a lot of women (ironically enough), often prostitutes. Often euphemistically: Of loose and immoral life”. By the mid 17th century, according to an Oxford dictionary definition at the time, the meaning of the word had changed to mean “addicted to pleasures and dissipations. However, around the early parts of the 17th century, the word began to be associated with immorality. The word’s original meaning meant something to the effect of “joyful”, “carefree”, “full of mirth”, or “bright and showy”. The word “gay” seems to have its origins around the 12th century in England, derived from the Old French word ‘gai’, which in turn was probably derived from a Germanic word, though that isn’t completely known. Today I found out how ‘gay’ came to mean ‘homosexual’.