gaynesses

Noun

gayness (usually uncountable, plural gaynesses)

1. (dated, rare, usually) The state of being gay (colorful or festive); display or dressiness.
   • And truly, at a short butt, which some men doth use, the peacock feather doth seldom keep up the shaft either right or level, it is so rough and heavy ; so that many men, which have taken them up for gayness, hath laid them down again for profit:1545, Roger Ascham, Toxophilus; The School of Shooting, in Two Books, London: John Russell Smith, published 1866, →OCLC, page 124
2. (countable, dated, rare, usually) The state of being gay (cheerful); gaiety.

   Synonyms:

   gayfulness, joy, blitheness, blithesomeness, cheerfulness, cheeriness, contentness, contentedness, delight, delightedness

3. (usually) The state of being gay (homosexual); homosexuality; demeanor stereotypically representative of it.
   • You cannot blame their gayness, their queerness, their homosexuality on sudden wealth.1940 January-June, Allen Bernstein, Millions of Queers (Our Homo America), [Unpublished MS of the United States National Library of Medicine], →OCLC, page 51

   Synonyms:

   homosexuality, gay, faggotry