I need a euphamism for gay ...

light in the loafers?

As queer as a three dollar bill?

"Fairy" would work.

My 93-year-old grandfather uses the term "wavy boy".

Fey: whimsical, strange, effete. "He's a bit fey, don't you think?" I know that I have read/heard it used to imply homosexuality, but my brain refuses to remember where.

What nationality?

shirt-lifter

fudge-packer

These are my 2 favourites but could well be inappropriatel

Pansy is one my grandparents used, along with fairy. Or bent.

ooh, I like bent.

"I like him, but he seems a bit bent in the wrong direction, dontcha think?"

Could mean anything. Work, social, sexual...

edited because i double postede

girlie-man
fruitcake

batting on the wrong team?

"He values his privacy," said in a rather snotty tone might do the trick.

I found something like that here.

Confirmed bachelor?

Oscar Wilde used the term Socratic, but that seems a tad cryptic.

http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/links.htm#gay

has some useful stuff

Leva said:

My googlefu is failing me.

I have a fairly well educated, upper class, teenage girl (sixteenish) who is trying to say that she thinks a man is gay (because he's effeminate) without actually coming out and saying he likes men.

This is circa WW1, and yes, she'd be aware of the concept as she's fairly worldly. However, she's just a little bit catty, but is also very polite, if that makes sense. (Think upper-class snob.)

I am having a great deal of difficulty finding the right phrase. Help?

-- Leva

Click to expand...

He's a poofter.

If he were a poetess, he'd be Sappho.

"Different", with an eyebrow arched/sideways glance/wink.

Probably needs another contextual clue, such as someone commenting that the chap's always solo/sits out the dances/ladies feel very relaxed with him.

S'Fool said:

Fey: whimsical, strange, effete. "He's a bit fey, don't you think?" I know that I have read/heard it used to imply homosexuality, but my brain refuses to remember where.

Click to expand...

"Fey" to me has always defined having a psychic gift, i.e. "Morgan Le Fey". In Andrew Greeley's best selling "Nuala Anne" series, the main character, Nuala, is portrayed as being "fey" using the same meaning as I have always known.

From Dictionary.com:

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
fey /feɪ/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[fey] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective 1. British Dialect. doomed; fated to die.
2. Chiefly Scot. appearing to be under a spell; marked by an apprehension of death, calamity, or evil.
3. supernatural; unreal; enchanted: elves, fairies, and other fey creatures.
4. being in unnaturally high spirits, as were formerly thought to precede death.
5. whimsical; strange; otherworldly: a strange child with a mysterious smile and a fey manner.




As for ways to say "gay" in the World War II era, I would say fairy, nancy boy, pouf, or flit, all older terms I've heard.

johnnysannie - not to get argumentative, but google "fey homosexual." (Unfortunately, I didn't think of this combo last night.) Although it appears to be more British in usage, it is a definately a word that was been used to describe gay folk (although it does look to have been more popular in the thirties - fifties than WWI.

Really?

I live in the UK and it means exactly the definition( doomed, or supernatural/psychic, or being in high spirits before death). I've never heard it used for anything else.

Ofc it might have meant gay back then, I'm not old enough to remember WW1, honest!

I googled it - and came up with one Uk reference to fey = homosexual in the first three pages or so. The rest are american - maybe it's more a US thing?
( I say this because one of my US beta's mentioned that I'd used fey as I mentioned above, and told me off for it hehe, until I explained it's actually used that way here)

He's prone to the man-crush...he's been known to perform acts of great admiration upon other men

or somesuch

Also molly or nelly.

An old British one is "Queer as a nine-bob note."
My Gran used it a lot...

Willie