gayola

English

Etymology

From gay +‎ -ola.

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -əʊlə

Noun

gayola (uncountable)

  1. (chiefly historical) The practice of American police departments extorting bribes from gay bars, especially in the 1950s and 60s, in return for not raiding them; such a bribe.
    • 1998, The American Journey: Derived from retrieving the American past, →ISBN:
      Every one of the bars that testified against the police department during the gayola inquiry was shut down.
    • 2006, Journal of the History of Sexuality:
      Policing power over gay bars was thus shifted from the SFPD's beat officers to the mayor and the chief of police. In the wake of the gayola scandal Mayor Christopher launched an offensive against homosexual drinking establishments.
    • 2008, William N. Eskridge Jr., Dishonorable Passions: Sodomy Laws in America, 1861-2003, Penguin, →ISBN:
      One reporter asked the attorneys involved in one of the gayola prosecutions whether “gay bars” were acceptable.

Asturian

Alternative forms

  • gayuela (Cuarto de los Valles)
  • gayuola (Tox)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡaˈʝola/ [ɡaˈʝo.la]
  • Rhymes: -ola
  • Syllabification: ga‧yo‧la

Etymology 1

From gayu +‎ -ola

Noun

gayola f (uncountable)

  1. happyness, liveliness
    Synonyms: felicidá, allegría
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Likely from Aragonese gayola from Late Latin caveola, see Spanish entry below.

Noun

gayola f (plural gayoles)

  1. (rare) prison
    Synonym: cárcel

Spanish

Etymology

Likely from Aragonese gayola,[1] from Late Latin caveola, diminutive from Latin cavea (cage) (whence Old Spanish gabia, gavia). Compare Portuguese gaiola. Doublet of jaula, which was borrowed through French.

Pronunciation

 
  • IPA(key): /ɡaˈʝola/ [ɡaˈʝo.la] (everywhere but Argentina and Uruguay)
  • IPA(key): /ɡaˈʃola/ [ɡaˈʃo.la] (Buenos Aires and environs)
  • IPA(key): /ɡaˈʒola/ [ɡaˈʒo.la] (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay)

  • Rhymes: -ola
  • Syllabification: ga‧yo‧la

Noun

gayola f (plural gayolas)

  1. (dated) cage
    Synonym: jaula
  2. (colloquial) clink (prison)
    Synonym: cárcel
  3. (colloquial) handjob, wank

References

  1. ^ Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1984) “jaula”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critical Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), volume III (G–Ma), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 501

Further reading