Glossary
Light In The Fedora
A rare, playful variant of the older euphemism "light in the loafers," hinting that a man is gay by invoking a stereotype of effeminacy.
"Light in the fedora" is an uncommon, jokey variation on the older American euphemism "light in the loafers." Like its parent phrase, it hints obliquely that a man is gay by playing on a stereotyped image of lightness or effeminacy. Phrases of this kind belong to the coded mid-twentieth-century vocabulary that let homosexuality be referenced without naming it, during a period when being openly gay brought real risk. The expression is not widely documented and reads today mostly as a novelty riff on the more established "light in the loafers," occasionally used with ironic affection rather than as a serious insult.
Learn more: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/light_in_the_loafers
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