By the late 1800s, the term began to acquire secondary meanings related to "frivolous" or "promiscuous" behavior, sometimes used to describe "gay girls" (prostitutes) or men living outside traditional social norms.
Derived from the Old French gai , the word originally meant cheerful, bright, or showily dressed.
In the 1920s and 30s, the LGBTQ+ community began using "gay" as an underground code to identify one another without alerting the general public.