Warm, Blue and Bulgarian: !e Development and Diffusion of !ree Expressions to Denote a “Male Homosexual” in Central and Eastern European Languages

Words denoting male homosexuals in the languages of Europe often have fascinating and unexpected origins. &ey are reflections of different cultural patterns in the perception and understanding of homosexuality over time. The attempt to reconstruct the development of these words and expressions gives a revealing insight into the cultural history of the Old Continent. It shows the path, both geographical and semantic, along which they have spread through the centuries and reveals traces of compact cultural areas. In the paper, particular attention is devoted to three of the most interesting and widespread expressions denoting male homosexuals in Central and Eastern Europe: “warm brother”, “light-blue” and “Bulgarian”.