English

gayfolk

From gay + folk.

A compound of gay + folk

Old French gai ‘joyful, merry’

Middle English gay ‘joyous’

English gay

Proto-Germanic *fulką ‘troop, army’

Proto-West Germanic *folk ‘military, army, troop’

Old English folc ‘the people, especially the common people’

Middle English folk ‘people, folk’

English folk

Today it means

noun Gay people.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.