pride

31 August 2026

Pride comes to us from the Old English pryde or pryte, which had a core meaning pretty much the same as the present-day word. But strangely, its origin is quite different from that of proud. Our present-day adjective proud is a reflex of an Old English word, prud, but that Old English word is a rare borrowing from the Old French, prod. We don’t see many borrowings from French from before the Norman Conquest.

Use of pride specifically in reference to the LGBTQ+ political and cultural movement dates to 1969, shortly after the Stonewall uprising. We see it, in the phrase gay pride, in an article in the zine Gay Power published in that year:

Gay pride and self-consciousness are valid tools to fight oppression. I was never self-conscious about being a lesbian and drag butch until this goddam society—straight and gay—made me feel like an isolate. When straight society recognizes my essential humanity and my right to be myself, and when gays stop dumping on drag types by outright rejection or [start] advocating that gays should love the eccentrics in their midst (meaning drag types among others), I’ll abandon my gay sensitivities, sensibilities, self-consciousness, and pride as being a pain in the ass; but in the meanwhile, being a pain in someone else’s ass has its moments.

By 1971, pride was being used without the modifier gay when context rendered that unnecessary. We also start to see it being used by mainstream publications. A 24 June 1971 article uses the standalone pride in a headline, although the body of the article uses gay pride:

Pride Week Set By Gay Libbers

Austin Gay Liberation Front (GLF) is planning weekend activities for more than 500 people it says will be in town to celebrate Gay Pride Week which ends June 27.

Sources:

American Heritage Dictionary, fifth edition, 2022, s.v. pride, n., proud, adj.

Merriam-Webster.com, accessed 1 June 2026, s.v. pride, n., proud, adj.

Oxford English Dictionary Online, March 2007, s.v. pride, n.1; June 2003, s.v. gay pride, n.; September 2007, s.v. proud, adj., n., & adv.

Stephan, Marty. “Deliver us from our Friends—Please O Lord.” Gay Power, 1.8, 1969, 21/1. Gale Primary Sources: Archives of Sexuality and Gender.

“Pride Week Set by Gay Libbers.” Austin Statesman (Texas), 24 June 1971, A10/7. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Image credit: Silar, 2019. Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.