different between nosegay vs gay

English

Etymology

From Late Middle English n?segai (?), from n?se (“nose”) (from Old English nosu, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nas- (“nose”)) + gai (“a bright or gay object; an ornament”) (from Old French gai (“cheerful, gay, happy”)); equivalent to nose +? gay.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n??z?e?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?no?z??e?/
• Hyphenation: nose?gay

Noun

nosegay (plural nosegays)

1. A small bunch of fragrant flowers or herbs tied in a bundle, often presented as a gift; nosegays were originally intended to be put to the nose for the pleasant sensation or to mask unpleasant odours. [from 15th c.]

   Synonym: posy
2. (figuratively) An aroma, a scent.

Hypernyms

• bouquet

Hyponyms

• tussie-mussie

Coordinate terms

• corsage

Derived terms

• nosegayed

Translations

Notes

References

Further reading

• nosegay on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Gonyeas

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: g?, IPA^(key): /?e?/
• Rhymes: -e?

Etymology 1

From Middle English gay, from Old French gai (“joyful, laughing, merry”), usually thought to be a borrowing of Old Occitan gai (“impetuous, lively”), from Gothic *???????????????????????? (*gaheis, “impetuous”), merging with earlier Old French jai ("merry"; see jay), from Frankish *g?hi; both from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudden”). This is possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *??eng?- (“to stride, step”), from *???y- (“to go”), but Kroonen rejects this derivation and treats the Germanic word as having no known etymology.

Adjective

gay (comparative gayer, superlative gayest)

1. (dated, possibly archaic) Happy, joyful, and lively.

   The Gay Science

   • 1405 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Wife of Bath's Tale, The Canterbury Tales (source):

   • c. 1692, William Walch, preface to Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant, in John Dryden, The Fourth Part of Mi?cellany Poems, Jacob Tonson (publisher, 1716), page 338:

   • 1934, George Marion Jr. et al., (title):

   • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur (Faber & Faber 1992), page 252:

2. (dated) Quick, fast.
   • 1873, Gwordie Greenup, Yance a Year, 25:

     I went a gay shack, / For it started to rain.

   • 1918, Hunter-trader-trapper, page 36:

     We launched our canoe and were off at a gay clip for Hackettstown, where Mart had a married sister, and we were figuring on big eats.

   • 2016, Laura Jean Libbey, Mischievous Maid Faynie, Library of Alexandria (?ISBN):

     " […] there is no one more competent to make it fly at a gay pace than myself. A prince of the royal blood couldn't go at a faster pace than I have been going during these last three weeks! Ha, ha, ha!" In a moment he was kneeling before the safe.

   • 2019, Lawrence Lariar, He Died Laughing, Open Road Media (?ISBN):

     We shot along Sunset Boulevard at a gay pace, and squealed a turn down Vine Street with never a jitterbug pedestrian to make the driving interesting.

3. (dated, possibly archaic) Festive, bright, or colourful.

   Pennsylvania Dutch include the plain folk and the gay folk.

   • 1881, J. P. McCaskey (editor), “Deck the Hall^[sic]”, Franklin Square Song Collection, number 1, Harper & Brothers (New York), page 120:

   • 1944, Ralph Blane, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, Meet Me in St. Louis, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

4. (obsolete) Sexually promiscuous (of any gender), (sometimes particularly) engaged in prostitution.
   • 1806 (edition of 1815), John Davis, The Post-Captain, page 150:

     As our heroes passed along the Strand, they were accosted by a hundred gay ladies, who asked them if they were good-natured. "Devil take me!" exclaimed Echo, "if I know which way my ship heads; but there is not a girl in the Strand that I would touch with my gloves on."

   • 1856, Bayle St. John, The Subalpine kingdom: or, Experiences and studies in Savoy, Piedmont, and Genoa, Volume 2 page 158:

   • 1879, House of Commons, Great Britain, Reports from committees, page 61:

   • 1889, Albert Barrère, Charles Godfrey Leland, A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant: Embracing English, American, and Anglo-Indian Slang, Pidgin English, Tinker's Jargon and Other Irregular Phraseology, Volume 1, page 399:

   • 1898, John Mackinnon Robertson, G. Aston Singer, "The Social Evil Problem" in The University magazine and free review: a monthly magazine, Volume 9, page 308:

   • 1899, Henry Fielding, Edmund Gosse (editor), The works of Henry Fielding with an introduction, Volume 11, page 290:

   • 1937, Dorothy L. Sayers, Busman's Honeymoon, page 357:

5. Homosexual:
   1. (of a person or animal) Possessing sexual and/or emotional attraction towards members of the same sex or gender.
      • 1947, Rorschach Research Exchange and Journal of Projective Techniques[4], page 240:

      • 2003, Michael McAvennie, The World Wrestling Entertainment Yearbook:

      • 2007, Kevin P. Murphy, Jason Ruiz, David Serlin, Queer Futures, Radical History Review (Duke University Press), page 58:

        The two failed attempts to receive the necessary access to medicalized transition procedures by the renowned FTM activist Lou Sullivan—a gay man who refused to comply with the imperative that transsexual men must desire women— […]

      • 2009, Betty Jean Lifton, Lost & Found: the Adoption Experience, page 67:

      • 2010, No?l Sturgeon, Environmentalism in Popular Culture: Gender, Race, Sexuality, and the Politics of the Natural, page 128:

   2. (of a romantic or sexual act or relationship) Being between two or more men, or between two or more women.

   3. (of an institution or group) Intended for gay people, especially gay men.
      • 2003, Lawrence Block, Small Town, page 269:

      • 2004, Martin Hughes, Sarah Johnstone, Tom Masters, London, page 208:

      • 2010, Jay Mohr, No Wonder My Parents Drank: Tales from a Stand-Up Dad, page 252:

   4. (slang, with for) Homosexually in love with someone.

      • 2014, Christopher Schaberg, Robert Bennett, Deconstructing Brad Pitt, Bloomsbury Publishing USA (?ISBN), page 211:

        Being gay for Brad, even a teensy bit, is at the very least being able to imagine the potential for queerness. In a sense, like the recent popular and critical furor over men who are gay-for-pay, being gay for Brad is what Jeffrey Escoffier defines as "situational homosexuality," or other forms of man-on-man behavior […] In other words, rather than worry over whether or not men who are queer for Brad can easily be labeled as straight or gay, […]

   5. (slang, humorous, with for) Infatuated with something, aligning with homosexual stereotypes.

   6. In accordance with stereotypes of homosexual people:
      1. (loosely, of appearance or behavior) Being in accordance with stereotypes of gay people, especially gay men.
      2. (loosely, of a person, especially a man) Exhibiting appearance or behavior that accords with stereotypes of gay people, especially gay men.
         • a. 2005, Jason Christopher Hartley, “October 23, 2004: This Is My Weapon, This Is My Gerber”, in Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq, HarperCollins (2005), ?ISBN, page 25:

6. A pejorative:
   1. (slang, derogatory) Effeminate or flamboyant in behavior.
   2. (slang, derogatory) Used to express dislike: lame, uncool, stupid.

      Synonym: ghey

      • 1996, Lisa's Date With Density, The Simpsons (cartoon television series). Upon discovering Nelson kissing Lisa:

        Dolph: "Oh, man! You kissed a girl!"

        Jimbo: "That is so gay!"

7. (of a dog's tail) Upright or curved over the back.
8. (Scotland, Northern England, possibly obsolete) Considerable, great, large in number, size, or degree.
   • 1832, George Pearson, Evenings by Eden-side: Or, Essays and Poems, page 67:

     As his reply was rather characteristic, I will give it : Many of them come a gay bit off.

   • 1872, William Cullen Bryant, A Library of Poetry and Song, page 106:

     Thou 's wantin' a sweetheart? Thou 's had a gay few! An' thou 's cheatit them, […]

   • 1876 (edition; original 1871), Richardson, Talk 1:

     A gay deal different to what I is noo.

   • 1881, Dixon, Craven Dales:

     There were a gay bit of lace on it.

   • 1881, Edwin Waugh, Tufts of Heather, I. 106:

     T'country-side was rid on him for a gay while.

   • 1895, Sir Hall Caine, The Shadow of a Crime: A Cumbrian Romance, page 131:

     "He has a gay bit of gumption in him, has Ray. It'll be no kitten play to catch hold on him, and they know that they do." The emphasis was accompanied by a lowered tone, and a sidelong motion of the head towards a doorway […]

   • 1903, Robert Smith Surtees, Handley Cross, New York : D. Appleton, page 431:

     "It's a gay bit off, though." "Trot on!" retorted Mr. Jorrocks anxiously, spurring Arterxerxes vehemently, an insult that the animal resented by a duck of his head and a hoist of his heels. Bump, bump, trot, trot, squash, splash, swosh, they went  ...

Usage notes

• The predominant use of gay in recent decades has been in the sense homosexual, or in the pejorative sense. The earlier uses of festive, colorful and bright are still found, especially in literary contexts; however, this usage has fallen out of fashion and is now likely to be misunderstood by those who are unaware of it.
• Gay is preferred to homosexual by many gay (homosexual) people as their own term for themselves. Some claim that homosexual is dated and evokes a time when homosexuality was considered a mental illness by the mental health community, while others feel that the word homosexual(ity) does not express the emotional aspects of sexual orientation.
• In the broad political sense, gay usually refers to anything pertaining to same-sex relationships, whether male or female: gay rights and gay marriage. When used in coordination with other terms for sexual orientations, it usually specifically refers to men who are attracted only to men, and excludes lesbians, bisexuals and other orientations, as in phrases like lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB). Context is sometimes necessary to determine whether or not gay implies male in a given phrase.
• Since at least the 1950s, gay has sometimes been used as a broad umbrella term for all queer and gender-nonconforming (transgender and genderqueer/non-binary) people, similar to LGBTQ.

Synonyms

• (homosexual): See Thesaurus:homosexual

Derived terms

Related terms

• jay

Descendants

• ? Irish: aerach (calque)

Translations

Noun

gay (plural gays)

1. (now chiefly in the plural) A homosexual, especially a male homosexual.

   Coordinate term: lesbian

   • 2003, Marilyn J. Davidson, ?Sandra L. Fielden, Individual Diversity and Psychology in Organizations (page 73)

     Yet that does not mean that the issues, concerns and attitudes of gays and lesbians in the workplace are not important.

   • 2004, Betty Berzon, Permanent Partners: Building Gay & Lesbian Relationships That Last (page 20)

     Older gays and lesbians often relegate themselves to separate and unequal meeting places.

2. (dialectal, obsolete) Something which is bright or colorful, such as a picture or a flower.
   • 1839, Charles Clark, John Noakes and Mary Styles, st. 157:

     At a stall soon Mary bote / A hume-book full ov gays.

   • 1892, P. H. Emerson, A Son of the Fens, page 73:

     I had no books to read, but plenty of gays to look at.

   • 1893, Cozens-Hardy, Broad Nrf., page 38:

     ‘Can't you mow the aftermath in the churchyard before Sunday?’ ‘Not time enough, sir, but I'll cut off they gays.’

   • a. 1900, W. R. Eaton of Norfolk, quoted in 1900, Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary:

     There's a good child; look at the gays, and keep quiet.

3. (obsolete) An ornament, a knick-knack.
   • 1906, Cornish Notes & Queries: (first Series) (Cornish Telegraph, Peter Penn), page 132:

     If however the stranger be suspected of “sailing under false colours," when they are all in familiar chat about nothing in particular, “Cousin Jacky” will take occasion to say to the new chum, “My dear; ded 'e ever see a duck clunk a gay?" […] no more deceived by him than a duck can be made to clunk (swallow) a gay (fragment of broken crockery).

Usage notes

• Gay may be regarded as offensive when used as a noun to refer to particular individuals.
• Gay is sometimes used broadly to refer to any man who is attracted to and/or sexually active with other men, or any woman attracted to or active with other women, even if not exclusively, e.g. if their orientation is in fact bisexual.

Synonyms

• see Thesaurus:homosexual person and Thesaurus:male homosexual

Derived terms

• (gay person): gay bashing
• (colorful object or flower; ornament): nosegay

Translations

Verb

gay (third-person singular simple present gays, present participle gaying, simple past and past participle gayed)

1. (transitive, dated, uncommon) To make happy or cheerful. [since at least the 1920s]
   • 1922, Thomas Hardy, Late lyrics and earlier: with many other verses, page 119:

     SAYING GOOD-BYE (song)

     WE are always saying / "Good-bye, good-bye! / In work, in playing, / In gloom, in gaying […]

   • 1952, American Childhood, volume 38, page 2:

     Gaying Things Up For Christmas. JESSIE TODD, Laboratory School, University of Chicago.

     EVERY schoolroom in America is gayed up for Christmas.

2. (transitive, uncommon) To cause (something, e.g. AIDS) to be associated with homosexual people. [popularized in the 1990s]

Related terms

• de-gay
• re-gay

Adverb

gay

1. (Scotland, Northern England) Considerably, very.
   • 1833, John Sim Sands, Poems on Various Subjects, page 115:

     And, tho' his guts ware lank and toom, / They're twice as big's this gay big room.

   • 1869, Joseph Carr, Sketches of village life, by “Eavesdropper”, page 60:

     Now, to end my story, if o' t' village beauties wad git t' religion that good auld parson Jenkins recommends, it wad gay sharply mak' t' dirty women clean, […]

   • 1875, Dickinson, Cumbriana; Or, Fragments of Cumbrian Life, page 8:

     […] an' be t' Silver Cwove, an' than throo t' Pillar, an' a gay rough bit o' grund it is!

   • 1886, Thomas Farrall, Betty Wilson's Cummerland Teals, 42:

     When a fellah com' in 'at was gay free wid spendin.

   • 1892-3, Mrs. Humphry Ward, The History of David Grieve, volume I, page 19:

     She'll mak naw moor mischeef neets—she's gay quiet now!

References

• Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006), page 450, "gay"
• “GAY” in Joseph Wright, editor, The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume II (D–G), London: Published by Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900, ?OCLC.

Etymology 2

From Pitman kay, which it is derived from graphically, and the sound it represents. The traditional name gee was considered inappropriate, as the Pitman letter never has the sound of that name.

Noun

gay (plural gays)

1. The letter —, which stands for the sound /?/, in Pitman shorthand.

Related terms

• gee (in Latin script)

Anagrams

• YAG

Chinese

Etymology

Borrowed from English gay. Doublet of ?.

Pronunciation

Noun

gay

1. gay; male homosexual (Classifier: ???)

Derived terms

Czech

Etymology

From English gay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [???j]
• Hyphenation: gay

Noun

gay m anim

1. male gay

Declension

Synonyms

• See also homosexuál

Further reading

• gay in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• gay in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Finnish

Etymology

From English gay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??ei?/, [??e?i?]

Noun

gay

1. (colloquial) gay

Usage notes

• Seldom inflected, as this term does not readily fit into Finnish inflection patterns. Instead, corresponding forms of synonymous expressions or compounds such as gay-mies ("gay man") or gay-poika ("gay boy") are used.

Declension

Synonyms

• homo

French

Etymology

From English gay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??/
• Homophones: gai, gaie, gaies, gais, gays, guet, guets
• Rhymes: -?

Noun

gay m (plural gays)

1. gay (homosexual person)

Gamilaraay

Etymology

Snake tracks were carefully avoided as treading on one was thought to cause skin sores. The cart tracks of the early European explorer Mitchell were thought to be giant snake tracks.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?aj/

Noun

gay

1. snake track

References

• Gamilaraay Yuwaalaraay Yuwaalayaay Dictionary 2003

German

Etymology

From English gay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [????]

Adjective

gay (not comparable)

1. gay

Related terms

• schwul

Further reading

• “gay” in Duden online

Interlingua

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?e?/

Adjective

gay (comparative plus gay, superlative le plus gay)

1. (LGBT, sexuality) gay

Noun

gay (plural gays)

1. gay

Synonyms

• homine gay
• persona gay

See also

• gai (merry)

Manx

Noun

gay f

1. Eclipsed form of kay.

Mutation

Matal

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [?áj]

Noun

gay

1. mouth

2. language
3. beginning

References

Middle Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a?i/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French gai.

Adjective

gay

1. cheerful, happy

Inflection

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

Alternative forms

• gaey

Descendants

• Dutch: gei, gaai

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Old Northern French gai, from Late Latin gaius, from the Roman name Latin Gaius. Also see Spanish gaya and urraca.

Noun

gay m

1. jay
2. parrot

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Alternative forms

• gai

Descendants

• Dutch: gaai

Further reading

• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “gay (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN, page I
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “gay (II)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN, page II

Middle English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French gai.

Adjective

gay

1. joyous, merry

Descendants

• English: gay
• Yola: gaaye, gai

References

• “gai, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Middle French

Etymology

Variant of Old French gai, borrowed from Old Occitan gai, possibly of Germanic origin, or from Latin vagus.

Adjective

gay m (feminine singular gaye, masculine plural gays, feminine plural gayes)

1. cheerful; happy; gay

Descendants

• French: gai

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• guei (rare)

Etymology

Borrowed from English gay.

Pronunciation

Adjective

gay (plural gays, comparable)

1. gay
   1. homosexual (involving or relating to same-sex relationships, especially between males)

   Synonyms: homossexual, (slang, derogatory) bicha, (Brazil, slang, derogatory) veado

   1. (figuratively, slang) overly sentimental
   2. (figuratively, slang) effeminate or flamboyant

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:gay.

Derived terms

• kit gay

Noun

gay m, f (plural gays)

1. gay; homosexual (person attracted to others of the same sex), especially a male homosexual

   Synonyms: homossexual, (slang, derogatory) bicha, (Brazil, slang, derogatory) veado

2. (slang, derogatory) a person who lame, stupid or shows any other unpleasant characteristics

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:gay.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from English gay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?ej]

Adjective

gay m or f or n (indeclinable)

1. gay

Declension

Scots

Adverb

gay

1. fairly, considerably

Sori-Harengan

Noun

gay

1. water

References

• Blust's Austronesian Comparative Dictionary

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English gay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??ei/, [??ei?]

• IPA^(key): /??ai/, [??ai?]

Adjective

gay (plural gays or gais)

1. gay, homosexual

Noun

gay m or f (plural gays or gais)

1. a homosexual person, gay person

Usage notes

The Real Academia Española recommends the plural form gais for both the adjective and the noun, but gays is much more common.

Further reading

• “gay” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

References

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

• (Hà N?i) IPA^(key): [?aj??]
• (Hu?) IPA^(key): [?aj??]
• (H? Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [?a(?)j??]

Adjective

gay • (?, ?, ?)

1. difficult; hard

Derived terms