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Revision as of 15:27, 30 March 2006 by Paul Barlow (talk | contribs) (→Cigarettes)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)This page discusses the history of the term faggot as used to describe gay men. For information on gay men, please see that article.
Faggot or fag, in modern American usage, is a generally pejorative term for gay men, or for men who are judged to be "unmanly", weak or effeminate. Its usage has spread to varying extents elsewhere in the English-speaking world.
Etymology
The origins of the word in this sense have been clouded by mythology.
Bundle of sticks
It has been frequently said that the pejorative use of the word derives from "faggot" in the sense of a bundle of sticks, because homosexual men were burned at the stake for sodomy and faggots were used as kindling.
There is, however, no historical evidence for these supposed derivations, and the use of the term "faggot" for gay men goes back only to the 19th century. The fact that this use appeared in the United States—where no one is known to have been burned at the stake for sodomy—but not in Britain, where men were burned at the stake for buggery until the 17th century (though the more common punishment was hanging), makes this derivation seem highly unlikely.
Prostitution
It is more likely this use of faggot was originally a derogatory term for street prostitutes, female and male, because they were associated with "the gutter", where "faggot-ends" of meat were thrown by butchers. The term "faggot girls" for prostitutes is attested from the late 19th century. Often perceived still as gender traitors, homosexual men are still often spoken of as "girls," and there were probably a number of male prostitutes at the same time referred to as "faggot boys". In either case, it would be a short leap from "faggot girl" meaning "prostitute" to "faggot" meaning "homosexual male"—probably starting with male prostitutes who tend to serve primarily or exclusively male customers.
British slang
The word faggot does have a native slang meaning in Britain where it commonly denotes a silly or foolish person—someone who is "as a dumb as a bundle of sticks". In the pilot episode of the Britcom 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 was also traditionally used in the North of England to refer to a portion of beef covered in gravy.
"Fag" was also 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.
However, fag or faggot has also become understood as an Americanism in British English, primarily due to its use in films and television series imported from the United States.
Cigarettes
In British English the term fag, as distiguished from "faggot", most commonly means a cigarette, as for example in the 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 unsmoken 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—especially as "fag" is an obvious truncation of "faggot." But this is not very likely because Americans have almost never referred to cigarettes as "fags". In Britain "fag" is still a very common slang term for a cigarette
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:
- "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:
- "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 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 (for example, Fred Phelps in his "God hates fags" campaign). Among many gay men, use of the term (especially by perceived outsiders) is considered offensive or impolite.
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 Commonwealth English terms such as "queer" and "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.
The ever-politically-incorrect observational comedian George Carlin once pointed out the fine distinction of this term in 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!"
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".
External links
- How did "faggot" get to mean "male homosexual"? on The Straight Dope.
- Entries for faggot on Urban Dictionary.