Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of gejo
Coloured illustration of gejo
#2205 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

gay man; gay person

Word origin

A borrowing of English gay, taken into Esperanto in the late twentieth century once that word had settled into its current meaning. The older Esperanto term, still perfectly good, is samseksemulo, built inside the language from sama, sekso and -em.

Origin
English
Root
gay
English cognates
gay

Examples

.

Two gay men danced together at the party.

.

He is gay and lives with his husband.

.

A rainbow flag hung above the street.

is a gay man, and by extension a gay person. The adjective is : , a gay couple; , a rainbow flag; , gay rights. A gay woman is more usually lesbo or lesbanino.

The word is a straightforward borrowing from English, and it arrived late. Esperanto's own home-grown term is samseksemulo - same, sex, -- inclined to, -- person - which is precise, transparent and slightly clinical, rather like "homosexual" in English. Both are in use and neither is rude; is the everyday one, samseksemulo the formal or careful one. a, straight, is built the way you would expect, though most speakers say heteroseksema or simply rephrase.

A false seam worth naming. - is a real Esperanto prefix meaning "of both sexes together": parents, oj siblings, oj ladies and gentlemen. has nothing to do with it. There is no root -jo, and the at the front is just the first two letters of an English word. As with benzino, the affix only counts when the remainder is a root you could meet alone.

That accident is a useful way into a bigger question: Esperanto's default assumption that a person-root is male until you add -in- is the language's most argued-over feature, and there are live proposals to fix it. The gender in Esperanto article lays out the system, the criticisms and the reforms, and this word sits in the middle of that conversation.

Where this fits

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Esperanto · Free printables

gejo: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "gejo" (gay man; gay person): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 45.