Words and its definitions have been constantly changing since the beginning of the English Language. Some jump back and forth between definitions over time and many have dual meaning that are still debated or misunderstood to this day. I believe that people are the cause for the misperception of certain words causing them to change meanings. Most debated words are ones that can be offensive if taken in the negative connotation. I believe that these changes or misperceptions of the definition certain word indicates negative things about our language and our culture as a whole. ‘Gay’ is a word that I find to be misperceived in a bad way. I, however, do not find it offensive at all. It goes by what the definition says it is in the dictionary and if people can not handle that then that is their problem.
The word ‘gay’ has two common definitions ever since it was introduced in the English Language. It first appeared around 1425 used as an adjective meaning: of persons, their attributes and actions, full of or dispersed to joy and mirth, manifesting or characterized by joyous mirth, light-hearted, exuberantly cheerful, sportive, and merry: “A lay Of love..made hire herte fressh and gay” (OED). Clearly at first there was no derogatory use of this word in anyway. The first rather negative definition of the word occurred around the 1930s when it meant a homosexual. I believe that this definition originated from the first, because gay men are viewed as being more lively and cheerful than straight men. Still, this definition is just a noun and I think it is the same as saying a whale is a mammal. It is just another term for the word and not as specific.
Gay began to be used as a verb around 1950 and it meant to make gay, to give a bright and pleasant look to, or to embellish. Again, nothing came to my attention that this word should be debated or misunderstood as anything negative. The first real bad use of this word occurred around 1978 when it meant foolish, stupid, socially disapproving like “That is gay.” However, this was used in slang English. Nowadays, it has become very popular and used in everyday conversation. The two main definitions people apply with the word gay these days are foolish, stupid and homosexual. Personally, I believe that this word should stick to its original two meanings and leave the slang one out, because the newest definition is what I believe started the word being used in a nugatory way.
In order for me to have found out what people thought whether this word was derogatory or not was to survey several of my friends. Out of the 25 I questioned, 13 thought it was always used as a derogatory term, 7 did not believe so, and only 5 believed that it depended upon the context of the word. The 5 believed that it was not negative when it meant something of a homosexual-like nature; however, they did believe it was derogatory when it meant that someone was stupid or socially disapproving. From these surveys, I firmly believe that it depends upon the individual and how he approaches the meaning of the word. In my case, I do not find it offensive in anyway. When people tell me that I am gay, I do not mind it at all because I find it a foolish thing to call someone. Whenever any of my friends use it, it usually is a joke and never hurts anyone at all. People tend to just brush it to the side and forget it ever happened.
I believe that this word started to be offensive because of the media, including movies and TV shows. Even though I see the word used as a joke, it still offends people in certain ways.
However, several people that are gay do take this in a derogatory sense. I find that those that are comfortable with their sexuality do not mind being called gay; however, those who are not as comfortable with their sexuality take this offensively, because they feel as if they are being looked down upon from society. People that have low self-esteems, homosexual or not, can take the word as being demeaning as well. No one likes to be called dumb or stupid to their face, so it is not hard to believe that certain individuals take offense to this word.
Though I believe that this is not a derogatory term, I think that it gives a negative view about our language and culture. First of all, gay has no definitive derogatory term in the Websters dictionary so why should it be taken in that way, however many words in the dictionary have been altered to mean something offensive; therefore, I still believe it depends on the individual’s status or view in life on how one approaches the word to be offensive or not. But many native English speaking people nowadays have made this out to be hurtful to other people. I still can not comprehend how the definition of the word started out to mean lively, cheerful, and exuberant to being foolish and idiotic. Language is known as the foundation of culture, and with people turning words from its original meaning to a more condescending meaning, it is not hard to believe why people view our culture as being demeaning and violent in the eyes of foreign and domestic people.
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