Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxv.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxv!peduto From: peduto@pyuxv.UUCP (S A Peduto) Newsgroups: net.motss Subject: Re: gay?? really?? Message-ID: <585@pyuxv.UUCP> Date: Thu, 16-Aug-84 13:34:35 EDT Article-I.D.: pyuxv.585 Posted: Thu Aug 16 13:34:35 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 17-Aug-84 07:28:01 EDT References: <50600001@convex.UUCP>, <2755@CSL-Vax.ARPA> Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J. Lines: 18 The Farmer and Henly reference I gave earlier on this issue traces the word Gay to a French criminal's phrase which meant -- "to use a man's penis". I don't have F&H here at the office, so I can't quote exactly, but the reference is Farmer and Henley, A Dictionary of Slang and its Analogues, reprinted by Arno Press, a division of Times Books. The usage is at least as old as the mid- 19th century, and probably dates from the late 18th. I'm told Boswell dates it from the Middle Ages.