Re: Schools working to overhaul the art of computer programming (The Columbian)

Richard Heathfield wrote:
Lionel B said:

<snip>


Of course any language is in a constant state of flux, "hijacking" of
words being a common mechanism of change. Bemoaning the fact simply
makes you sound fogeyish.


Well, I don't mind that.


Interestingly, in southern English teen-speak the word "gay" appeared
to have gained (and then, within a mere couple of years, lost)
currency with yet another meaning - something like "cool" (as in
"so-and-so is well gay").


...and another meaning, of which I was somewhat surprised to learn - hard to pin down exactly, but it translated roughly as "silly", "badly thought out", something like that. I first came across it IRL about a decade ago, and it seemed fairly well-established for a while, but I haven't heard it for a year or two now, except for an occasional usage on IRC. It's not a meaning I would consider using myself, though.


There was recently an item in the news in the US about a high school student who was disciplined for using the phrase "that's so gay" in the very sense you cite above. She apparently had no intention of slurring homosexuals, but it was misinterpreted. Somebody once said that a dictionary is merely a snapshot of a language at a given moment.

JS
.

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