rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) (10/04/84)
"Gay" in its homosexual sense may be far older than nearly everyone suspects; conversely, "homosexual" IS more recent than many probably assume. "Gay" might date from the Provencal of the 1200s-1300s, the language of medieval Provence (southern France), which would mean it preceded "homosexual" by 500 to 600 years. In CHRISTIANITY, SOCIAL TOLERANCE, & HOMOSEXUALITY (pp. 43-46, & footnote 6) Boswell speculates "gay" may have circulated among the troubadors, in their poetry, & figured in the institution of courtly love, which many historians believe is the origin of our modern notion of "romantic love" [see note below]. His reasons include the fact that: 1. Provence had a repuation for gay sexuality in the middle ages; the cult of courtly love reached its peak there, as well. 2. Some troubadour poetry (& at least some leading troubadours -- see note below) was "explicitly homosexual" (p. 44). 3. Both troubadour poetry & the courtly love cult had close links with heretical movements in Provence, especially the Albigensians, who were "internationally suspected of favoring homosexuality" (p. 44). Late 19th century German psychologists created the term "homosexual", but it was adopted by English speakers only in the early 1900s, & didn't appear in OED (Oxford English Dictionary, a kind of erudite barometer of what constitutes "English") until circa 1939, because the word was "vehemently opposed [in the English-speaking world] for decades be- cause of its bastard origins [half-Greek, half-Latin] & vague conno- tations" (p. 44). Famed "sexologist" Havelock Ellis used it in 1897, but fumed that it was "a barbarously hybrid word, & I claim no respon- sibility for it" (quoted by Boswell, p. 44). NOTE: Some historians have even speculated that gay people, as trouba- dours & their same-sex amours, may have played a major or even crucial role in creating and developing the rituals & ideas of courtly love, and thus, in a very real sense, have been responsible for modern "love" and "romance", that staple of heterosexuality, the family, & "western civilization" itself in the modern world. An anthology of research papers by gay academics (the title escapes me, but the slipcover is lavender) has an essay exploring this possibility. "Noah Webster, where are you?" Ron Rizzo