The word "gay".

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If I'm not entirely off the mark, the contemporary euphemism for actual homosexuals was either "confirmed bachelors" (presumably always followed by "wink wink, nudge nudge") or "bohemian", which carries with it a whole slew of imagery of it own, mostly pertaining to living the "starving artist" lifestyle and the breaking of accepted norms. Also, old name for the Czech republic, which is a somewhat strange association, but maybe someone else knows what that's all about.

"ret*d" is a naughty word, but at least I am using it correctly. And not incorrectly like the modern teens use "gay".

"Confirmed bachelor" maybe. I do remember grown ups using that phrase in my mid 20th century childhood, and being a child I probably didn't "get it". But I have never heard "Bohemian" used that way.

What my Boomer generation (and all of you after us) mean when we say "hippies" -that's pretty much what the term "Bohemian" was used to mean for many generations prior (in more than one European language). Non conformist, rebel, artist, folks choosing to live on the fringe of society, who dress unconventionally, and like that. And like you, it always confounded me what that has to do with the country called "Bohemia". But folks in the proto counter culture are mostly heterosexual, and homosexuals don't gravitate to the Bohemian lifestyle any more/less than heteros. I dunno. I don't associate the two things.

Yes- the real "Bohemia" is where the city of Prague is located. "Bohemia" is actually the German language name for the region that the locals who live there call "Czechy" - the locals being Slavic speaking ethnic Czechs. Bohemia and Moravia together form what is now called "the Czech Republic" (the western half of what used to be "Czechoslovakia" - the eastern half being Slovakia inhabited by the Slovaks) A neighbor lady of ours was Midwesterner of partial Czech descent and mentioned to us that Czech Americans don't like being called "Bohemian" because that's what German speaking Austrian rulers of the place called it, but "we Czechs always called it 'Checky'" (not the actual spelling- just the phonetic way it sounds).

For centuries the whole south eastern corner of Europe was ruled by the Ottoman Turks. The Gypsies originated in the Middle East and India, and migrated into Europe via the Ottoman ruled Balkans. And apparently many of them fanned out to the rest of western Europe out of the Prague area. So the wandering Gypsies would ID themselves as "Bohemians" when migrating westward into France or wherever. The poor parts of cities like Paris came to called "the Bohemian section". So in the 19th Century when starving artists poets and musicians found lodging it was often in that same poor section. And often they would also dress flamboyantly like stereotyped Gypsies as well. So that's how the German word for Czechs came to mean "proto counter culture" ( by way of being a euphemism for "Gypsy").

I think I heard of it from an analysis of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Some character was talking about Holmes and Watson, and implying/speculating that they were "bohemian", which the author of the analysis said was a contemporary euphemism for them being a homosexual couple. May possibly have been a local thing, but seems unlikely.

Well, I actually moved areas shortly after finishing Secondary school. I no longer live where that school is.



Generally speaking, the old meaning isn't that popular among teens and young adults. They usually either mean "That's actually homosexual" or "I think that thing is uncool/bad/not fair".



Granted, he was under pressure by the concerned parents committee. I'm not sure what their official name is, but that's what I would call them.

Our school had this group of parents who voted on school measures, and I heard our biology teacher talking to someone who was observing the lesson, my teacher was joking about it saying that there's no way we would actually listen to the whole "Wait till marriage, and ideally only have sex to procreate within that marriage" and how he thought it was silly teaching us this, but he didn't want to annoy the board.

They spoke softly to one another, clearly trying not to let students hear their conversation, but it's hard not to eavesdrop when you have extra-sensitive hearing like me.



Yet not that surprising for my biology teacher, there was a running joke in my class about this other student who would brag that he got "So many ladies", our teacher would make jokes about him being a secret gay drag Queen who would change his name every Saturday and flirt with men. This kind of behaviour wasn't unusual for him.

Goldfish21, if you think that's ironic- there was another Sex Ed class going on in a different room, where an unmarried pregnant girl was sat in a classroom learning about the importance of abstinence. My physics teacher, who was also my form tutor, apparently had her that lesson and just asked her to sit in the school library until the lesson was over.

I told a friend who went to a different school about this, and she replied "That girl should've said I'm sorry, can you speak up? My baby can't quite hear you!"

Are you, now? It's proper use is to mean "hindered," or "held back." Meanwhile, in this context, you've used it to mean ridiculous, silly, stupid, or some other negative connotation.. much the same as someone would call someting "gay," today. So, you're using it in one of it's correct slang forms.. which is generally considered offensive by some people who are hypersensitive to the use of the word.

Also the proper use of "lame" means "unable to walk".

Well...I am using the word "ret*d" in the same way that the medical community used it back in my day, back in Fifties and Sixties, to mean mentally intellectually "delayed". The medical community adopted the fancy French word for "delayed" as a euphemism for the terms they had used before that (like 'imbecil', 'moron', and "idiot". They actually used those as clinical terms). Soon after that school kids adopted the term "ret*d" as an insult, but an insult with the exact same meaning that the medical community used it to mean:"intellectually subpar" (ie "dumbass"). That's what I meant by it: because that's how that teacher looks to me. Like a dumb ass. So I am using "ret*d" correctly. Shrinks used the term that way in an official way. And I am using it the same way.

So the way I am using it is not really "slang". It IS a correct usage.

But lets go with your notion that my usage IS slang: its still a more logical a word usage.

It may have been used in that slang form for decades, but it's still not it's proper use. You took a word with medical & physical (engine timing) definitions and used it as an adjective with negative connotations much like someone calling something "gay." I'm not offended & don't really care.. just pointing out that the use of both words is very similar.

As is the use of "lame" (unable to walk) and "dumb" (unable to speak).

Ok, now you guys are just being lamegaytardedumb about this..

This is insane. I can't believe how out of sink this is to when I was in school or to the attitudes to most people in this country including the government.

^Sync

Sorry about the gay spelling.

Well, these things can really vary depending on the school. I often talk with people who attended different schools to me, and they all have varying experiences from one another.

One friend in particular went to a school that was fairly supportive of gay rights, and they never came across any openly homophobic or biphobic teachers (unlike me) plus their Sex Ed was quite different, since they didn't do about abstinence, just safe-sex and information on condoms (our class didn't, it was just a very brief "You all know what condoms are, right? Good, use them, but ideally you should only be having sex to make kids, but if you happen to do so without that intent then wear them".

Plus, their school also covered homosexual relationships, which surprised me, but apparently some schools in the UK do. Mine didn't. Another difference was that they spent a term learning this stuff, we had a day.

If you want another ironic moment, one day the English department was bragging about being outstanding during a presentation which involved showing the parents a PowerPoint, the word "Outstanding" was spelt incorrectly on one of the slides.

Apparently, someone remarked "Yeah, it'd be even more outstanding if they could spell the word!", but since it was a parents only event I sadly missed that.

The standard of English wasn't great at that school, our headteacher (who was also an English teacher) didn't know the difference between affect and effect, and I once got a PE questionnaire where all the questions were double negatives, with only a "yes" and a "no" to circle, so I didn't know what to put.

In the end I decided to write explanations underneath explaining what I meant by each answer.

“Confirmed Bachelors” means gay? I am a baby boomer I never heard it used that way. It meant a single man who has an active sex life, who shows no signs of wanting to “settle down” and get married. Synonyms were “playboy”, “swinger”.

“Deviant” literally means different, today’s equivilent might be “outlier”. But in the 50’s and and 60’s it was a pejoritive synonym for homosexual you can see it if you look at mainstream media articles and scientific papers from that time. I never heard any acceptence of homosexualty through the 80’s.