The quality or state of being gay; cheerfulness, merriment, and lightheartedness, or in modern usage, sexual orientation toward the same sex.
From gay plus -ness, the standard English suffix for forming abstract nouns indicating quality or state. In contemporary usage, the word has shifted meaning alongside the semantic evolution of 'gay.'
This single word's meaning has undergone one of the most dramatic shifts in modern English—in the 1800s, 'gayness' meant simple cheerfulness, but by the late 20th century, it came to describe sexual orientation. Language meaning isn't fixed; it moves as culture moves.
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