Most of these definitions and usage follow the same line of reasoning as the original meaning-homophobically thwarting any taunts that a man is “gay” because he complimented another guy.
Learn why in our new words update, “ Releases Its Biggest Update Ever.”Īfter entering the casual speech of young, cishet men, no homo burst onto the internet scene in 2003 with multiple definitions on Urban Dictionary. Please note: the word gay (which itself has its own painful past) is now recommended over homosexual to refer to gay men. Homo, shortened from homosexual, has insulted men as “weak” since the 1960s. That is, when a male rapper wrote a lyric that he thought could be perceived as romantic toward other men, he might add no homo to the line to head off any slurs routinely slung at gay men.
In the 1990s, no homo was used in hip-hop as a preemptive measure.
