3 ms·

I'm not a native speaker; does gay unequivocally relates to romantic preference? Or can it also simply mean "joyful"?

• peteretep 6y ago
  It can also be a given name and a surname. However, 99.9% of usage in English these days is sexual orientation related.
  • jodrellblank 6y ago
    I was going to say “and a name which is neither”, but I didn’t realise the atomic bomb dropping superfortress Enola Gay was named for the pilot’s mother. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enola_Gay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enola_Gay
• mmm_grayons 6y ago
  There's still a distinct meani g of happy. For some reason, though, people are trying to stamp it out; I hardly hear it used in new writing.
  • pulse7 6y ago
    "For some reason..." ...the reason is that today "it mostly evolved into sexual orientation" like another commenter said.
  • gilrain 6y ago
    Interestingly, the adverb form is still mostly used in the joyful sense. "The weather cleared, and the people danced gaily."
  • CydeWeys 6y ago
    It's not remotely as nefarious as that, it's just that language evolves over time and conflicting meanings that cause confusion tend to be weeded out.
• shultays 6y ago
  It meant joyful at some point but now it mostly evolved into sexual orientation
• 3pt14159 6y ago
  Sometimes people will say "I'm having a gay ol' time" to mean "I'm having a good time" with a bit of a subversive tint to it, since they know that everyone knows that gay to mean happy is completely outdated. The vast majority of the time it means homosexual, even for women.
• C1sc0cat 6y ago
  It did but not any more. There is a trope of retired Colonel writing to the Times bemoaning the of gay in its new form. <beat> in the 1960's