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Faggot or fag, in modern American, Canadian 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.

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 (Sodom and Gomorrah). 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.

More significantly, the word has been used since the late sixteenth century to mean "old or unpleasant woman". Female terms are often used with reference to homosexual or effeminate men (cf. nancy, sissy, queen) and this seems the most likely derivation.

The Yiddish word faygele, lit. "little bird", is claimed by some to either be an origin or an influence on its usage, and it is unlikely this would be true. It is more likely a simple coincidence, as faygele most likely comes from German Vögelein meaning "little bird" as well. If the word has or has had a usage in the past in Yiddish-speaking areas, referring to homosexual or effeminate men, it is likely that it was because of the feminine connotations of "bird".

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!'."

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).

"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 derived from the original meaning (OED 1) of "fag-end" :"the last part of a piece of cloth", which by extension became used (OED 2, 1st citation 1612) for "the last part or portion of anything". When cigarettes were invented, this was applied to the unsmoked part, and then came to mean the whole cigarette. But the various historic British uses of "fag" and "faggot" were always distinct.

"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.

The American Meaning in Britain

The use of fag and faggot to mean homosexual have become understood as an Americanism in British English, primarily due to their use in films and television series imported from the United States. When Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews was heard supposedly using the word in a bad-tempered informal exchange with a straight colleague in the House of Commons lobby in November 2005, he was criticised for using homophobic abuse.

Usage in popular 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. The term is often used by young people as a synonym for words such as jerk (i.e. "What a jerk!" becomes "What a faggot!"). 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.

Originally confined to the United States, the homosexual sense of "fag" and "faggot" has 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" and "faggot" with other meanings in the British isles has severely limited adoption of the American usage there.

On July 27, 2006 American Republican pundit Ann Coulter said that the former Vice President of the United States (Al Gore) was a "total fag", and that former President of the United States (Bill Clinton) was a "latent homosexual", while being inteviewed by MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Coulter caused a major controversy on the LGBT community; and GLAAD and other gay rights organizations demanded to know the reason why such an offensive usage of the word was permitted by the network. David Letterman later responded in defense of Bill Clinton by calling Coulter an "evil, crazy bitch" on his Late Show.

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!"

In the Family Guy episode "One If by Clam, Two If by Sea", when the Drunken Clam, the bar that Peter, Quagmire, Cleveland, and Joe frequent, is purchased by British men, Cleveland states that all he knows about British English is that fag means cigarette. Peter then comments "Then, could somebody tell this cigarette to shut up?"

The Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing" makes notable use of the epithet 'faggot' in apparent reference to the singer Boy George, although later version of song have the offending lines excised, and in live performances Mark Knopfler will use such minced oaths as "mothertrucker" in place of "faggot".

A song on New York punk band Mindless Self Indulgence's second album, Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy, is titled "Faggot."

Another example of the word's use in rock music is in the song "The Great Deceiver" by King Crimson. The line "health food faggot" opens the album Starless and Bible Black, although no gay reference is intended: 'faggot' instead refers to a vegetarian meatball.

See also

• Batty boy
• Gay
• Homosexuality
• Lesbian
• Queer
• Fag hag
• hate speech
• hate mail

References

1. Morton, Mark (2005) Dirty Words: The Story of Sex Talk. London: Atlantic Books; see also: www.etymonline.com.
2. ibid.
3. http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid35054.asp The Advocate magazine - "When hate speech becomes accepted"

External links

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

• LGBT terms
• Profanity
• Pejorative terms for people