where did the term "gay" come from?

[leftofthedial]

not in the rash of copycat threads, but in general usage.

how was it coined?

I've seen several movies recently, one from as late as the early 60's, in which "gay" was used to mean "carefree," so I assume it wasn't in popular use to mean "homosexual" at that point.

Anyone know?

[texanwitch]

1. I think it came from the gay'90's , the 1900's.

:hi:

[mark414]

2. read all about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay

[jriles]

3. A septuagenarian friend total me...

I don't know if this answers your question, but it does shed some light on its origin as a term for sexuality. Back in the fifties when being openly gay could get you jailed or worse, the word was used as a signal amongst strangers as to who was on the in.
Say you were a business man on a business trip and you were with a group of other businessmen and thought one of them (like you) liked men. If someone laughed, for example, you could say, "Someone's feeling gay." Anyone who wasn't gay wouldn't be the wiser, but whoever was, knew who to go out with for drinks that evening.

[cwydro]

4. well

I know about "Friends of Dorothy" and "family". Lemme go look up this wikipedia thing...