[OT] Languages and cultures (was Re: survey)

[J. Landman Gay]

Richmond Mathewson wrote:

> Certainly it would be quite difficult to work out the semantic step from 
> 'jolly' to
> 'homosexual' unless, of course, there was an awareness of the even 
> earlier sense
> of 'heterosexual looseness'.

If I remember right, there was no semantic drift. The group simply 
decided arbitrarily that "gay" was the word they wanted to adopt, and 
then did so. It could easily have been anything else, and if it had 
been, then some other family would have been getting 3 AM phone calls 
from 9 year olds who had various, though usually unoriginal, suggestions 
for us.

That all stopped when Caller ID became widespread, btw, for which we 
remain extremely grateful.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com