According to Eric Partridge’s A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (1961), the following meanings are listed under gay:
* Gay boy. A homosexual: Australian: since ca. 1925.
* Gay girl; gay woman. A prostitute.
*A dupe: Australian.
Now, it’s not entirely clear whether this sense of ‘gay’ was coined in Australia, or whether ‘gay’ = Australian.
3 January, 2010 at 8:23 am
no but who cares – you’re all blinking happy. Well you should be – it’s summer
3 January, 2010 at 8:25 am
I did have a glorious swim yesterday.
3 January, 2010 at 8:37 am
And I fell over in the icey snow coming home from the pool tonight and I’ve got a black eye. Big BMF. I need cool salt water…
3 January, 2010 at 8:24 am
mind you it probably wasn’t – you’re famous for stealing things – horses, pavlovas, cricket players (you can have them…)
3 January, 2010 at 8:25 am
haha, but we did invent vegemite, despite claims to the contrary. As for pavlovas, you can have them.
3 January, 2010 at 8:35 am
yeah marmite is better. And you can have the pavs. I don’t want that sticky gooey white trash! You can have John Key too if you like. And Brian Tamaki.
3 January, 2010 at 8:51 am
Key and Tamaki are genuine Kiwi. I suspect Tony Abbott is too.
3 January, 2010 at 9:03 am
actually I think all three belong in america. They’ve got the evangelical messiah complex. Like millagan
3 January, 2010 at 8:52 am
But wasn’t marmite invented in England? Which is the reason why – according to Alasdair Maclagan – it has been the centre of the globe since the 1300s.
3 January, 2010 at 9:02 am
not marmite with a little m.
3 January, 2010 at 9:46 pm
I wouldn’t be surprised if it did originate in australia..
http://itsthomas.com.au
3 January, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Me neither.
31 May, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Notice how none of the definitions are negative…
12 June, 2010 at 4:21 am
What the hell man :p This is the first time I’ve ever run into a definition term pointing something like “Gay” into a country like Australia. Though I definitely have to say I think gay was not coined by the Australians due to gay being used to mean happy before the country was originally just an isolated ocean surrounded prison. I don’t think they coined it per se.
22 June, 2010 at 9:12 pm
cmon let australians get rewards for sthing! I actually wish they would change this word: if once the gay people were actually gay, happy and smiling, today they’re (we’re) acid, we overjudging everything, excessive, unpolite and pretentious.
6 October, 2010 at 3:07 pm
This is an interesting notion. Sounds right though.
23 November, 2010 at 8:24 am
What? Why are men gay and not women? Why is it the “gay/lesbian”community, not just the homosexual community? I think gay should be dropped as it is derogatory.
29 June, 2011 at 11:47 am
I dont know if it deragatory. Its only derogationy when used in a negative way.
30 April, 2011 at 1:32 am
i don’t think its derogatory. I’m not sure why lesbians prefer to be called lesbians. But you go into any gay club and by far men outnumber women 100 to 1. Perhaps they prefer being seperate? I’m not sure.