How long does it take for a meaning of a word to become archaic? Here we see that homosexual doesn't crop up until the fourth use of the word, yet, is it not the primary use of the word these days, and for many decades?
Aside from a few random songs, like 'Deck the Halls' and the 'Flintstone's Theme,' just how often do people use gay to mean happy? Quite the misnomer considering how unhappy so very many homosexual men are.
Once upon a time the word was foisted upon homosexual men to explain to the very same kind of five-year-olds, who now giggle at the word, just what was off or different about them.
"Mommy, why's that guy acting like that?"
"Oh, he's just gay, dear."
Then, at some point, instead of being ashamed of the word, in a similar sense to the n-word, homosexual men claimed the word gay as their own. Lesbians, on-the-other-hand, took the time to pick their word, basing it off of the ancient Greek Isle of Lesbos upon which the philosopher Sapphos had her all woman's school of philosophy and poetry. During my Summer at Cedar Point, I mused over why homosexual men didn't take a similar route and go with the term "Athenian" to describe their intellectualism and same-sex romance.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gay
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