gaydar

English

WOTD – 28 June 2023

Etymology

Blend of gay +‎ radar, equivalent to gay +‎ -dar.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡeɪdɑː/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡeɪˌdɑɹ/
• Hyphenation: gay‧dar

Noun

gaydar (countable and uncountable, plural gaydars)

1. (LGBTQ slang) The supposed ability to detect whether or not a person is gay by observing that person's appearance, mannerisms, etc. [from early 1980s]
   • 1982 July 15, Gloria Goodqueen, “What’s in a card”, in Bay Area Reporter, volume XII, number 28, San Francisco, Calif.: Benro Enterprises, →OCLC, page 7, column 1:

     This is not your Hallmark in Ames, Iowa. And there is “family” working there … no radar like gaydar, I always say.

   • 1996, Judy Carter, “Step 3: Find Another Homo”, in The Homo Handbook: Getting in Touch with Your Inner Homo, New York, N.Y.: Fireside Books, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 51:

     When you first come out, you might have an overactive gaydar. When I realized I was gay, I wanted everyone to be gay too, which led to a lot of wishful thinking. "Helen Hunt is gay!" Dream on, girl!

   • 2013 May 12, Jocelyn Samara DiDomenick, “Comic 368 – January Girls”, in Rain‎^[1] (webcomic), archived from the original on 2022-12-08:

     "I dunno. He's carried this one on since Halloween. I'm starting to think the lie was actually the 'straight guy role'. I may have a crappy gaydar, but having faked heterosexuality before, I feel like I should be able to recognize it."

   • 2017 September 9, Sam Levin, “LGBT groups denounce ‘dangerous’ AI that uses your face to guess sexuality”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-04-29:

     The research, which went viral this week, used a sample of online dating photos, limited only to white users, to demonstrate that an algorithm could correctly distinguish between gay and straight men 81% of the time and 74% for women, suggesting machines can potentially have much better "gaydar" than humans.

   • 2024 February 25, Queerious, “The Deadname Meme”, in SCP Foundation‎^[3], archived from the original on 2 September 2024:

     Dr. Lillihammer started to walk past her, but stopped directly in front of her. Inches apart, they stared at each other. Sizing the other woman up, doing a little consulting of their gaydars. Heather felt Lillian's breath on her cheek and tried not to visibly let the shiver go down her spine.

Alternative forms

• gay-dar

Hypernyms

• queerdar

Hyponyms

• bidar, BiFi
• dykedar
• lesdar
• transdar

Coordinate terms

• straightdar

Derived terms

• -dar

Translations

supposed ability to detect whether or not a person is gay

• Armenian: գեյդար (geydar)
• Asturian: gaydar
• Belarusian: гейдар (hjejdar)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: gay達／gay达 (gèidá)

• Czech: gaydar
• Danish: gaydar c, bøsseradar
• Dutch: gaydar (nl) m
• Finnish: homotutka (fi)
• French: gaydar (fr) m
• Galician: gaydar
• German: Gaydar (de) m, n
• Hebrew: גיידאר (he)
• Indonesian: gaydar
• Italian: gaydar (it) m
• Japanese: ゲイダー (geidā)
• Korean: 게이다 (geida)
• Macedonian: ге́јдар m (géjdar)
• Persian: گی‌دار
• Portuguese: gaydar (pt) m
• Russian: гейда́р (ru) m (gejdár), гей-рада́р m (gej-radár)
• Spanish: gaydar
• Swedish: gaydar (sv) c, bögradar
• Thai: เกย์ดาร์
• Turkish: gaydar (tr)
• Ukrainian: гейдар (hejdar)
• Vietnamese: trực giác nhận biết đồng tính

Further reading

• gaydar on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “gaydar n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present

Anagrams

• Ardgay, rag day

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from English gaydar.

Noun

gaydar

1. gaydar
   • 2017, Endre Lund Eriksen, Den sommer far blev homo, Gyldendal A/S, →ISBN:

     Men Indiane påstod, at hendes far havde noget, de kaldte en gaydar. En slags indbygget radar, som fortalte ham, hvem der var bøsser, og hvem der ikke var.

     But Indiane claimed that her father had something they called a gaydar. A sort of built-in radar who told him who were gay, and who were not.

   • 2012, Søren Vejby, Upcoming, Art People, →ISBN, page 2:

     Jeg er nemlig udstyret med en gaydar, og den bippede i hvert fald ikke, da vi kyssede til festen.

     For I am equipped with a gaydar, and it certainly did not beep when we kissed at the party.

   • 2015, Anne Holt, anonymous translator, Sudden death, Gyldendal A/S, →ISBN:

     Desuden kan også gaydarer tage fejl.

     Besides, gaydars, too, can be wrong.

Declension

Declension of gaydar

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	gaydar	gaydaren	gaydarer	gaydarerne
genitive	gaydars	gaydarens	gaydarers	gaydarernes

Synonyms

• bøsseradar

Dutch

Etymology

From English gaydar.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

gaydar m (plural gaydars, diminutive gaydartje n)

1. gaydar

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English gaydar.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ɡejˈdaʁ/ [ɡeɪ̯ˈdah]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ɡejˈdaʁ/ [ɡeɪ̯ˈdah]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /ɡejˈdaɾ/ [ɡeɪ̯ˈdaɾ]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ɡejˈdaʁ/ [ɡeɪ̯ˈdaχ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ɡejˈdaɻ/ [ɡeɪ̯ˈdaɻ]

• Rhymes: -aʁ

Noun

gaydar m (plural gaydares)

1. (LGBTQ, humorous) gaydar (ability to detect whether a person is gay)

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:gaydar.