Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
gay (adj., n.)
Gay has meant “bright, lively, cheerful,” and the like for centuries, and as early as the seventeenth century it was also used to deal with sexual matters: a gay female was a prostitute, a gay male a womanizer, and a gay house a whorehouse. Use of gay in the sense of “homosexual,” especially “male homosexual,” is an Americanism that began as a slang adjective in the 1930s, but within a generation its use as both noun and adjective in this sense has become Standard. Today when you intend to use the adjective (in particular) in the older generalized senses of “bright, cheerful,” etc., you must take care that context makes that meaning clear: the modern specialized sense is very difficult to avoid today, especially in writing. See also HOMOSEXUAL.
