The closet
Posted by ESC on November 28, 2004
In Reply to: The closet posted by Bruce Kahl on November 28, 2004
: : Hello:
: : Does anyone know the origin of the expression "the skeleton in the closet"? Does the other expression, from the gay culture, "to come out of the closet", has anything to do with it? A distortion, may be? A borrowing?
: : Jose Carlos
: See link for a discussion.
Here's what I said before:
Come out of the closet or come out -- means to begin to participate in the homosexual social and sexual life. It was originally "homosexual use" in the mid-1900s. From "Slang and Euphemism: A Dictionary of Oaths, Curses, Insults, Ethnic Slurs, Sexual Slang and Metaphor, Drug Talk, College Lingo and Related Matters" by Richard A. Spears (New American Library, Penguin Putnam, New York, Third Edition, 2001).
A second reference talks about the Gay Liberation Movement or Gay Lib "which encouraged homosexuals to 'come out of the closet' and to work for equal rights for homosexuals. Such new attitudes were reinforced by the American Psychiatric Associations's decision in 1973 to remove homosexuality from its diagnostic and statistical manual after finding that homosexuality per se was not an indication of mental illness..." From Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases from Our Lively and Splendid Past by Stuart Berg Flexner (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982).
I am guessing that the phrase grew out of the expression "skeletons in the closet."
- Sorry to disagree Lewis 29/November/04
- Sorry to disagree ESC 29/November/04
- Sorry to disagree Bob 29/November/04
- Sorry to disagree Keith Rennie 29/November/04
- Yes, but... Jose Carlos 29/November/04
- Yes, but... keith rennie 29/November/04
- Infant mortality Lewis 01/December/04
- Infant mortality Keith Rennie 02/December/04
- Infant mortality Lewis 01/December/04
- Yes, but... keith rennie 29/November/04
- Yes, but... Jose Carlos 29/November/04
- Sorry to disagree Keith Rennie 29/November/04
- Sorry to disagree Bob 29/November/04
- Sorry to disagree ESC 29/November/04