Look up faggot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

For other uses of the term, see faggot (disambiguation) or fag.

Faggot or fag, in modern American English, Canadian English and Australian English usage, is a generally pejorative term for a gay or effeminate man. Its use has spread to varying extents elsewhere in the English-speaking world. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary is a Wikimedia Foundation project intended to be a free wiki dictionary (hence: Wiktionary) (including thesaurus and lexicon) in every language. ... Faggot or fagot may refer to the following: Faggot, a bundle of sticks or branches, usually meant for use as firewood Faggot (epithet), a derogatory slang term for a homosexual or unmanly male Faggots (novel), a novel by Larry Kramer Faggot (unit of measurement), an archaic unit of measurement Fagot... Look up Fag in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Canadian English (CaE) is a variety of English used in Canada. ... Australian English (AuE) is the form of the English language used in Australia. ... Look up pejorative in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In modern society, gay is a word which can be used as either a noun or adjective. ...

Etymology

The origins of the word in this sense are rather obscure.

It is often claimed that the derivation is associated directly with faggot meaning "bundle of sticks for burning", since homosexuals were supposedly burnt at the stake in medieval England. Alternatively, the Bible is claimed to refer to homosexuals stoking the fires of hell. This, however, is an urban myth. There is no such passage in the Bible, and there has never been a tradition in England of burning homosexuals at the stake. Admittedly the practice was not unknown elsewhere in Christian Europe, and burning was used in Britain for heretics and witches, but this ended centuries before the word faggot became associated with gay people. ^[1] Urban Legend is also the name of a 1998 movie. ...

More significantly, the word has been used since the late sixteenth century to mean "old or unpleasant woman". ^[2] Female terms are often used with reference to homosexual or effeminate men (cf. nancy, sissy, queen) and this seems the most likely derivation. It is also possible that the meaning derives from the use of the word as a derogatory term for street prostitutes, female and male, because of their association with the gutter, where "faggot-ends" of meat were thrown by butchers. ^{[citation needed]} The term "faggot girls" for prostitutes is attested from the late 19th century. ^{[citation needed]} Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (typically manual stimulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, or anal sex) for cash or other kind of return, generally indiscriminately with many persons. ... Look up Gutter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Butcher shop in Valencia A butcher is someone who prepares various meats and other related goods for sale. ...

The Yiddish word faygele, lit. "little bird", although unlikely to be the direct origin of the word in its modern US sense, may well have reinforced its use.

British meanings

"Faggot"

The word faggot is occasionally used in parts of Britain to denote a silly or foolish person, presumably as an extension of its earlier association with old women. In the pilot episode of the 1960s British comedy In Loving Memory from Yorkshire Television, undertaker Jeremiah Unsworth is killed in an accident at work. After the funeral, widow Ivy receives the condolences of her old friend Amy Jenkins, who says, "He heard the call. He answered it. And he fell in the line of duty. No man can ask for a better epitaph than that." Ivy thanks her, says good-bye, and then turns to her nephew, Billy, as soon as the door is shut and says in reference to Amy, "Silly old faggot! 'He heard the call?' 'He answered it?' The only call your Uncle Jeremiah ever heard was, 'Time, Gentlemen, please!'." Yorkshire Television Limited is the ITV contractor for Yorkshire, England, and the surrounding areas. ...

The term is also used, especially in Wales and the Black Country, to refer to a kind of pork meatball covered in gravy. See Faggot (food). National motto: Cymru am byth (Welsh: Wales for ever) Waless location relative to most of the British Isles (other parts of the UK shown on the map are in pink). ... The Black Country is a loosely-defined area of conurbation to the north and west of Birmingham, and to the south and east of Wolverhampton in the English West Midlands, around the South Staffordshire coalfield. ... Gravy is a thickened sauce, usually made from a base of the juices and extractives that run from meat during cooking. ... A faggot is a kind of pork meatball, a traditional dish in parts of the UK, especially Wales and the Black Country. ...

"Fag"

In British English the term fag (though not faggot) most commonly means a cigarette. A military marching song popular with the British army during the First World War featured the line "while there's a Lucifer (matchstick) to light your fag...". This is only one example of linguistic evidence of the word fag pre-dating the rise of the gay movement in the West. The unsmoked remains of a cigarette are called "fag ends". As these are often thrown into the gutter, it has been suggested that this contributed to the American slang use. This is not very likely, however, since Americans have almost never referred to cigarettes as "fags". In Britain "fag" is still a very common slang term for a cigarette. A lit, unashed cigarette A full ashtray. ... The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Lucifer, as depicted in Collin de Plancys Dictionnaire Infernal (1863). ... Household safety matches Ignition of a match burning match This article refers to the implement used to create a flame. ...

"Fag" was a term used for a junior boy who acted as a servant for a senior boy at Eton College, near Eton, Berkshire, and other British public schools. This practice, known as "fagging", was ended in the 1970s. Since the homosexual meaning was not common in the UK at this time and seems to have been first attached to faggot, not fag, this is not a likely origin for the American use of the word. == Fag is a very simple word that means Brent plamonden he is a slow retard that likes other men and his favorite choice is al a school janitor. ... The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is a prestigious and internationally known Public School for boys. ... Eton is a town in Berkshire, England, lying on the opposite bank of the River Thames to Windsor and connected to it by Windsor Bridge. ...

The American Meaning in Britain

The words fag and faggot have become understood as an Americanism in British English, primarily due to its use in films and television series imported from the United States. When Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews was heard using the word in a bad-tempered exchange in the House of Commons lobby in November 2005, most listeners assumed that he meant to question the target's sexuality. Dialect areas of England British English (BrE) is a term used to differentiate between the form of the English language used in the British Isles and those used elsewhere. ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed. ... A television program is the content of television broadcasting. ... Robert Graham Marshall-Andrews QC (born April 10, 1944) is an English politician and barrister. ... The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ...

Earliest written uses

The earliest known reference to the word in print was in the 1914 Jackson and Hellyer A Vocabulary of Criminal Slang, with Some Examples of Common Usages which listed the following example under the word, drag: 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Drag in its broadest sense means a costume or outfit that carries symbolic significance, but usually refers to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of the other gender. ...

"All the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight."

The word was also used by a character in Claude McKay’s 1928 novel Home to Harlem, indicating that it was used during the Harlem Renaissance. Specifically, one character says that he can't understand: Claude McKay. ... 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Harlem Renaissance was a flowering of art, literature and music in the United States in the 1920s and early 1930s led by the African American community based in Harlem, New York City. ...

"a bulldyking woman and a faggoty man"

Culture

"Fag" and "faggot" have historically been two of the most offensive terms that could be addressed to an American man or adolescent boy. Even so, in recent years, both terms have become employed by gay men in a defiant, self-consciously empowering or self-mocking way, much in the way some African Americans have taken to using the word "nigger" among themselves. A common example of this would be usage of the term "fag hag" to describe a woman who associates with (and may prefer as non-sexual social partners) gay men, though this use, too, was originally pejorative. When used as a pejorative, however, it is still a powerful term of abuse. Among many gay men, use of the term (especially by perceived outsiders) is considered offensive or impolite. The term has been used to describe lesbians or other homosexual women. An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black), is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... The word nigger is a highly controversial term used in many English-speaking countries, including the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia to refer to individuals with dark skin, especially those of African descent who previously were racially classified by the now outdated term Negro. ... Fag hag is a slang term, either abusive or affectionate, for a woman who enjoys the company of gay men. ... Look up pejorative in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Originally confined to the United States, "fag" and "faggot" in their homosexual senses have been spread by American popular culture to other English-speaking countries, where it has partly displaced terms such as "queer" or the British "poof" as colloquial or abusive terms for gay men, particularly among heterosexual youth. However, the continuing use of "fag" in British slang to mean cigarette and "faggot" to mean a bundle of sticks (or a fool) has severely limited adoption of the American use of the terms in the British Isles. Queer has traditionally meant strange or unusual rare , but is currently often used in reference to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and paraphilic communities. ... The term poof can be used in several ways: Look up Poof on Wiktionary, the free dictionary as a British English term for a a large footstool (from the French word pouf). as a name for bucky or English term for a gay man. ... A lit, unashed cigarette A full ashtray. ...

The observational comedian George Carlin once pointed out the fine distinction between "faggot" and "queer" from his youth. He said that "queer" meant homosexual, whereas "faggot" merely meant "unmanly". As he put it, "A faggot was someone who wouldn't go downtown on Saturday night and help beat up queers!" George Dennis Carlin (born May 12, 1937) is a Grammy-winning American stand-up comedian, actor, and author, noted especially for his irreverent attitude and his observations on language, psychology and religion along with many taboo subjects. ...

In one episode of Family Guy, when the bar that Peter, Quagmire, Cleveland, and Joe frequent is purchased by a British man, Cleveland states that all he knows about British English is that fag means cigarette. Peter then comments that they should "kick these cigarettes' butts". Family Guy is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for FOX in 1999. ... A lit, unashed cigarette A full ashtray. ...

The lyrics for the 1985 song hit Money for Nothing by Dire Straits were based on comments that the song's writer overheard being said by an applicance delivery man. It includes the lines "the little faggot with the earring and the makeup; yeh, buddy, that's his own hair; the little faggot got his own jet airplane; the little faggot is a millionaire". The repeated usage of the term, although used mockingly by the songwriter, nonetheless caused some controversy. It is another example of the British usage meaning "fool". In this instance there is also an implied ridiculing of the manliness, but not necessarily the sexual orientation, of the comment's target. That presumption in this song is underscored by the delivery man's repeated assertion, "Money for nothing, chicks for free". This article is about the year. ... The music video for the song featured early computer animation illustrating the lyrics. ... Dire Straits was a British rock band, formed in 1977 by David Knopfler (guitar), his brother Mark Knopfler (guitar and vocals), John Illsley (bass) and Pick Withers (drums), and managed by Ed Bicknell. ...

References

External links

• How did "faggot" get to mean "male homosexual"? on The Straight Dope.
• Entries for faggot on Urban Dictionary.