What is your first thought when reading the following that I wrote?
He was gayly dressed, behaving queerly when he went outside to gather some fagots.
Feeling so gay and overjoyed, as he viewed the queer behavior of the people when he picked up some fagots.
Now after you read them with today’s twisted English that keeps changing the meaning of words. Go to the 1828 Noah Websters Dictionary and then reread them…
Fagot
FAG’OT, noun [Gr. See Fadge. The sense is a bundle or collection, like pack.]
- A bundle of sticks, twigs or small branches of trees, used for fuel, or for raising batteries, filling ditches, and other purposes in fortification. The French use fascine, from the Latin fascis, a bundle; a term now adopted in English.
- A person hired to appear at musters in a company not full and hide the deficiency.
FAG’OT, verb transitive To tie together; to bind in a bundle; to collect promiscuously.
Gay
GAY, adjective
1. Merry; airy; jovial; sportive; frolicksome. It denotes more life and animation than cheerful.
Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay
2. Fine; showy; as a gay dress.
3. Inflamed or merry with liquor; intoxicated; a vulgar use of the word in America.
GAY, noun An ornament. [Not used.]
Gayness
GA’YNESS, noun Gayety; finery.
Queer
QUEER, adjective
Odd; singular; hence, whimsical.
Queerness
QUEE’RNESS, noun Oddity; singularity; particularity. [A familiar, not an elegant word.]
Watchmen On The Pod 