Well, Laird, I guess it’s annoyed “the homosexuals” that “the heterosexuals” have usurped the fine words bent, queer and so on.

And gay wasn’t the commonest word in early twentieth-century literature, so I think the loss, such as it is, has been very much exaggerated. Language changes and is pretty democratic. There are vastly more straight people than there are gay people, so the blame must lie with them for allowing the usurpation. Sue them. Had they not been so up themselves or so insecure that they couldn’t continue to use the word without embarrassment, we’d still have careless as the primary meaning.

Myself, I use the word gay to mean various different things at different times, and often I do it mischievously (the same with the two meanings of careless). But I expect people to be intelligent enough to keep up.

So don’t complain about the usurpation. Use it yourself and use it for what you think it should mean. That’s exactly what’s happened with schoolchildren using the word to mean naff or dorky. Far from protesting it, I take the new meaning on and play with it.

http://www.mdwfp.com/FORUMS/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=43449

It’s always annoyed me that the homosexuals have usurped the fine old anglo-saxon word “gay”.

That word is of French origin, not Anglo-Saxon.

Anyway, I think they’re on to something here. It’s always annoyed me that the homosexuals have usurped the fine old anglo-saxon word “gay”. Who do we sue over that?

I don’t know, but Paree would be among the plaintiffs. So would Gay Talese.

Now you can say this is gay and that is gay with, well gay abandon and no one can claim it’s a queer thing to say any more.

But make haste with your use of the word gay because the kids are fickle and soon saying something is gay will be totally gay.

Anyway, I think they’re on to something here. It’s always annoyed me that the homosexuals have usurped the fine old anglo-saxon word “gay”. Who do we sue over that?

Come to think of it, we should insist that Greece call itself something else in English. There’s no evidence that any of the original Graeci’s descendants live within its borders.