posted
What does "teh gay" mean? And no, it's not a misprint or typo, that is how they spell it. It always seems to be used facetiously by opponents of extremist religious teachings, but not sure what it means.
-------------------- I like free speech. It lets me know who the idiots are. Posts: 407 | From: Ireland | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Basically it's sarcasm.....it's usually used in the context of "Oh noes, they might catch 'teh gay'!", which is a sarcastic way of saying, "These religious whackos seem to think that if somebody is exposed to a more liberal viewpoint, they might suddenly become homosexual even if they had no inclinations towards it before."
Magdalene
-------------------- "Don't mess with me. I dance with swords." Posts: 1656 | From: Colorado | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
It means homosexuality, but as perceived by someone who believes homosexuality is evil and perhaps somehow "catching." The misspelling of "the" is deliberate, designed to imply ignorance or poor communication skills.
-------------------- How homophobic do you have to be to have penguin gaydar? - Lewis Black Posts: 8322 | From: Columbus, OH | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:"Teh" is a misspelling of "the", originating from a common typographical error. It is one of the words in the auto-correct lists of spellcheckers in popular word processing applications, such as Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.org Writer, Apple Pages, or Corel WordPerfect. It happens primarily for some, because the T and E are typed by the left hand on adjacent fingers in QWERTY, while the H is typed by the right, and in rapid typing, the T and E are often typed by the left hand in a drumming motion before the right can get the H in between the two. Conversely, overcompensating with the right hand can result in the misspelling "hte", which is also found in auto-corrects.
In the online slang known as Leet, it is deliberately used in place of the, and occasionally spelled t3h with a numeral 3 in place of e. Teh and t3h are the traditional spellings of "the" in the phrase "ph33r t3h ..." or "ph34r t3h ..." ("Fear the ...").
Besides being an alternative spelling of the, "teh" also has grammatical properties not generally applied to "the"; in general, it is used somewhat like an intensified "the". It can be used with proper names, as in "teh John"; compare the usage of the definite article in Greek: ο Ιωαννης (o loannes), literally "the John". A similar usage comes from colloquial German, where the definite article is used as a specifier to modify the noun: "Der Johann", again literally, "the John", could be used to identify John, and not Paul, as the subject performing a certain action. In Latin, the similar word ille and its declensions, which was at first an intensified article usually translated as "that", is the source of the derivations of the simple word for "the" and the personal pronouns (he, etc.) in the languages derived from Latin.
Furthermore, "teh" is sometimes used in front of a verb in a novel form of gerund. The best-known example of this is the word "suck". Thus, the phrase "this sucks" can be converted into "this is teh suck"; the word "pwn" can be similarly converted ("teh pwn"). Another common variation is "teh ghey". These phrases can be declinated further, such as "teh sux0rz", or "teh pwnage", yet another evolution of this lingual phenomenon. The above phrases are primarily used by the computer gaming community, and often intended humorously.
In English, the can be used as an intensifier for the superlative form of adjectives; compare "that is best" and "that is the best". "Teh" has a similar use as an intensifier for unmodified adjectives, generally marking a sarcastic tone. For example, "that is teh lame" translates as "that is the lamest". This contrasts with the standard use of the in English to construct mass nouns from adjectives, as in "blessed are the meek", where the meek denotes a class of people who are meek.
In addition, "teh" is often used to express extreme emotion by a typer, especially in the case of "what teh ****??" which has been shortened (both in speech and online) to "teh ****?". (It is also commonly shortened to WTF.)
-------------------- My great grandfather planted that tree! Posts: 4862 | From: Brooklyn | Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Snowy Chloe: OMG! Did you see a familar face on that page?
Face?
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I'm guessing that this is the same spirit present in the phrase "eleventy-one," as in mocking those with bad grammar and punctuation in the posting of an obvious troll remark?
-------------------- "Tis too much proved that with devotion's visage and pious action we do sugar o'er the devil himself." - Hamlet Posts: 344 | From: Pittsburgh, PA | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Rhiandmoi: That is clearly an imposter. First of all the mustache is all wrong.
I don't think he has a mustache, it looks more like a shadow on his lip.
(yes, rabbit looked at his FACE)
-------------------- "My sandwich choice is uncertain, until I actually order. It's like Schrodinger's Sandwich." "Is plutonium involved in this sandwich in any way?" "Maybe." Posts: 496 | From: Whitby, ON, Canada | Registered: Sep 2006
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Canuckistan
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
quote:Originally posted by Snowy Chloe: OMG! Did you see a familar face on that page? Scroll down and check out the right-hand side. Say it ain't so!
I really wish I could say it ain't so, Chloe. I really do.
Nevertheless, as I discovered a few weeks ago ...
-------------------- People need to stop appropriating Jesus as their reason for behaving badly. It's so irritating. (Avril) Posts: 8429 | From: New York run by the Swiss (Toronto) | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
Aw come on now, The Pirate has enough love to go around
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
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Canuckistan
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
quote:Originally posted by candy from strangers: Aw come on now, The Pirate has enough love to go around
Well, obviously. We all know his heart's big enough.
-------------------- People need to stop appropriating Jesus as their reason for behaving badly. It's so irritating. (Avril) Posts: 8429 | From: New York run by the Swiss (Toronto) | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Snowy Chloe: OMG! Did you see a familar face on that page? Scroll down and check out the right-hand side. Say it ain't so!
Hey, leave superstar rapper Nelly out of this!
-------------------- "I wanna bite the hand that feeds me. I wanna bite that hand so badly. I wanna make them wish they'd never seen me." - Elvis Costello Posts: 2291 | From: The Banks of the Merrimack, MA | Registered: Jul 2004
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Canuckistan
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
quote:Originally posted by Ana Ng: Canuckistan, I don't think that's his *heart*...
Like I care.
-------------------- People need to stop appropriating Jesus as their reason for behaving badly. It's so irritating. (Avril) Posts: 8429 | From: New York run by the Swiss (Toronto) | Registered: Mar 2005
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