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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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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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 45.