What slang terms for homosexual were in use in the UK in the 1900's to the 1920's?

When did we start using queer, sissy, gay and pansy? And what other terms did we use? I'm only interested in words for gay men, not lesbians. I need the info for a book I am helping a friend to write.

What slang terms for homosexual were in use in the UK in the 1900's to the 1920's?
Edwardian England - a period of time when it was a crime to committ homosexual acts, so the search for partners was carried out in two ways.



The wealthy went to members of the British army and the Coldstream Guards in particular.



The novelist J. R. Ackerley wrote in his memoir My Father and Myself that he considered his guardsman father to have been the lover of an aristocrat for a long period of time before pursuing a wife and family, economically bettered in the end by the support he had received from his 'male' partner.



The not so wealthy were forced to go underground, and look for "trade" or more commonly termed "rough trade". Often the attraction for the gay male partner from the working-class manual laborers with less education who were more physical developed.



The most polite term of slander was queer, - to pur sombody into a queer position, was to place them in an embarrassing or disadvantageous situation. It became a term of slandewr in the 1850's and by 1900 was the normal term used by the wealthy, as well as the working class.



The main term was Poofter, now shortened to poof, originally from the name for term for a large footstool or ottoman, - pouffe - which by the Edwardian era were mostly covered in leather and thus made a flatluance noise when sat upon. Poof is still slang in Canada for a fa-rt. The Australians developed the term Fa-rt-knocker in a similar manner.



Bent, was the 20's term, and arose from the fact that to assume a bent posture; stoop - bend over and pick up something, resembled the gay act.



******* was still being used, - Way back when churchmen were burning suspected witches at the stake. they stacked the fires with small bundles of branches tied together called "********" ... occasionally anyone suspected of homosexuality was tossed on, to entertain the crowds hence the term.



Fairy: A male homosexual, especially one who acts or dresses in an effeminate manner - was a common derogatory term for homosexuals during much of the twentieth century.



Sod was used as a slang for a sodamiser (sodamite) , but the word evolved into more common use during the first world war.



Bugger, from buggerer, also underwent the same transformation in the trenches.



The use of gay to mean homosexual was in origin merely an extension of the word's sexualised connotation of "carefree and uninhibited", which implied a willingness to disregard conventional began to appear at the start of the 1920s.



Pretty boys, witty boys,

You may sneer

At our disintegration.

Haughty boys, naughty boys,

Dear, dear, dear!

Swooning with affectation...

And as we are the reason

For the "Nineties" being gay,

We all wear a green carnation. ”

—Noel Coward, 1929 , Bitter Sweet



However, Well into the mid 20th century a middle-aged bachelor could be described as "gay" without any implication of homosexuality. This usage could apply to women too. The British comic strip Jane was first published in the 1930s and described the adventures of Jane Gay. Far from implying homosexuality, it referred to her freewheeling lifestyle with plenty of boyfriends (while also punning on Lady Jane Grey).



The most common in 1920 would have been Nancy - nancy boy, an effiminate man, when used by women - or Cissy - an offensive term for a boy or man who is considered not to exhibit stereotypical masculine behavior - when used by his peers.
Reply:Glad to be of some help, you mentioned in you question it was for a book, so why should anybody get offended? Report It
Reply:poof, poofter, sod, queer, pansy
Reply:Sod, Pillow Biter, Sh1t Stabber, Iron, Fruit, Derierre Dartagnan, Chutney Ferret, Bottom Enthusiast, Fudgepacker etc.



Gay really only came in as a term in thev1960s
Reply:Good lord, what an offencive question, but at the risk of offending any gay members we called them poofs and homos and ponces at my school, however nowerdays this is socially unacceptable and I appologise to any reader who may be offended.
Reply:Bender. Knob Jockey. Ar_se Bandit. S_hit Stabber. Turd Tapper. Uphill gardener. Shirt lifter. Fudge Nudger. Puff.
Reply:From my first-hand memories, in the 1950's they were "poofters" or "bum-boys", and in the 1960's they were "queers". From about 1965 they tried very hard to be called only "gay" and they seem to have eventually succeeded, as all the older terms are now seen to be rude.



A recent British TV program tried to establish, for the Oxford Dictionary, whether "gay" was in use to mean homosexual any earlier. Everything that they produced was innocent, or at best ambiguous. The clearest evidence against the idea is the continued normal use until about 1965 of "gay" to mean joyful, and of Gay as a girl's name.
Reply:Queer in that sense is an Americanism. I doubt if it had reached the UK by the 1920s.

'Sod' was definitely in use:

When Oscar went to meet his God,

Not dust to dust, but sod to sod... Swinburne, d. 1910.
Reply:From the 1900's, a "renter" or "bunburry"
Reply:previous answer -- if for real -- amusing -- only to say: funny thing, 'fa_g' [used in Western countries] actually an innocuous term in UK -- '****_ot' can mean stick (kindling-wood) %26amp;, more prevalent, 'fa_g' means cigarette [including: Quote re Rolling Stones smoking in new arena recently] -- awkward if these terms get mixed up!

am 'straight' %26amp; 1920's before my time -- re exact answer: in Victorian England, things like Sodomite or plain 'homosexual' were probably the usual terms -- dunno.



(edit) agree with Paul, a strange question, %26amp; somewhat delicate -- these days one should be PC [politically correct] %26amp; all that -- %26amp; just to add: from Xamanator's entry, noticed something for the 1st time -- 'put 2 %26amp; 2 together' -- is "sod" short for "sodomite"? -- (comp. to, other usage, sod as piece of earth) possibly %26amp; who knows...

[was Oscar Wild? Was Ben Gay? exc-me/ over%26amp;out]

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