The Word 'queer' Used To Mean 'odd' Or 'eccentric'.

[dave50]

Now it refers to homosexuals. I would have thought the transition of the meaning from 'odd' to now meaning homosexual would be offensive to gays. Perhaps that why this word started to be used for gays, implying that indeed they were 'odd' or 'eccentric' Any thoughts?

[Fitzer]

Eddie, Gas Works End is the Oval

[retrocop]

well Eddie was batting at the other side of London. :-)

[EDDIE51]

Yes sorry , but the meaning is the same. Bowling from the gasworks end = Gay.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah lots
( of thoughts )

actually you have jumped into the middle of a subject called socio-linguistics.

use of language in various subgroups in society. Yes queer is used by gays to describe themselves ( at times ) just as nee-jair is used by british afro caribbeans. I was told I mustnt use it myself even so.

Packie is apparently a short word for Padraic in Ireland. I havent tried it here because I dont want to go to prison


gay has had a sexual sense since 1550. When Queen Elizabeth called Drake a " gay dog" she was not intending to suggest: " he whistleth all the live long day" - she was saying something else

[ladyalex]

I can remember the phrase 'a bachelor gay' but cannot remember its origin.....it is definitely that way round, not a gay bachelor, so perhaps it's from a song or a play.
That phrase is from many years ago, long before 'gay' for homosexual was common parlance.

As to the gas works, I've heard it as 'he bowls from the gasometer end' which, as Sandy said can be interpreted in a number of ways.

[ladyalex]

Found it....from The Maid of the Mountains ...http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/unknown/a_bachelor_gay-lyrics-1178724.html

[zebo]

I am reminded of a time our daughter asked if a friend could stay, sleeping on an air-bed in her room, it was OK because "he's gay". After he left, Mother in Law commented Thought he was gay, seemed as miserable as sin!

[retrocop]

I suppose the phrase, "He flaunted his ring with gay abandon" must,alas,be used carefully.

[EDDIE51]

But 'Gay' is getting yet another meaning now. A child or teenager will describe something as 'Gay' to mean it is very bad or disgusting.
I heard a picture of a dog that was badly injured in a road accident described as ' Yuk,That's Really Gay'.

[retrocop]

That's what happens when the words in an ancient language are hijacked. It ends with no one knowing what the other means, or offence is taken and it ends in tears.

[dave50]

When a teenager uses the word 'gay' to mean bad or rubbish, they are in danger of being locked up by the thought police.

[EcclesCake]

Are they?

[EDDIE51]

My headmaster at junior school was My Gaye but it had no other meaning back in the 1950s. There was a well known ship called 'The Gay Adventurer' that would need a new name now!

[EDDIE51]

Mr Gaye . sorry