faggot
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfæ.ɡət/
rhymes: -æɡət
Forms: form: faggots
form: fagot
Etymology: From Middle English fagot, from Old French fagot (“bundle of sticks”), of uncertain origin. Unlikely from Old Occitan fagot or Italian fagotto, as these appear later than the Old French term. Compare also Italian fangotto and Spanish fajo (“bundle, wad”). Perhaps from a diminutive of Vulgar Latin *facus, from Ancient Greek φάκελος (phákelos, “bundle of wood”).
The senses relating to persons, though possibly originating as an extension of the sense "bundle of sticks", may have been reinforced by faygele, from Yiddish פֿייגעלע (feygele, “homosexual”, literally “little bird”), related to English fowl.
Senses: examples: text: In the depth of, winter, however, a faggot of real French Sticks — although of little intrinsic value — may possibly enliven for a few moments an English Fireside.
ref: 1853, Sir Francis Bond Head, A faggot of French sticks: or, Paris in 1851, page 2:
text: Besides the logs and roots that simmered with turves and dung on the cottage fire, rapid heat for bread-making came from faggots - bundles of dry twigs about 4 ft long - which were fed into the oven, burned and then removed as ash before the dough went in.
ref: 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 118:
glosses: A bundle of sticks or brushwood intended to be used for fuel tied together for carrying. (Some sources specify that a faggot is tied with two bands or withes, whereas a bavin is tied with just one.)
glosses: Burdensome baggage.
glosses: A bundle of pieces of iron or steel cut off into suitable lengths for welding.
examples: text: He clambered back on his feet and grinned at them. The waning faggot cast red light over his fangs.
ref: 1961, Poul Anderson, Three Hearts and Three Lions:
text: To the east, the night grew a faggot of luminous gray, then seashell opalescence that dimmed the stars.
ref: 1965, Frank Herbert, Dune, New York: Berkley (1977), page 102:
glosses: A burning or smouldering piece of firewood.
raw_tags: in US
examples: text: Today would be faggots in gravy and chocolate pudding with a white sauce. I didn't like faggots but picked at them and rolled the peas around my plate.
ref: 2008, Julie Hodgson, In My Father's Pockets, page 16:
synonyms: word: duck
glosses: A meatball made with offcuts and offal, especially pork. (See Wikipedia.)
examples: text: Drag, Example: “All the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight.
ref: 1914, Louis E. Jackson and C.R. Hellyer, Vocabulary of Criminal Slang (Portland, OR: Modern Printing Co., 1914) page 30
text: See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup? / Yeah buddy, that's his own hair / That little faggot got his own jet airplane / That little faggot, he's a millionaire
ref: 1985, Sting & Mark Knopfler, “Money for Nothing”, in Brothers in Arms, performed by Dire Straits:
text: We're a hot looking crew that's your average faggot's wet dream, so we pull some pretty max tricks.
ref: 2004, Dennis Cooper, The Sluts, page 228:
text: Fleissner's explanation presumably implies that Dickens meant Fag as an allusion to the derogatory English words fag 'homosexual', and faggot 'homosexual'
ref: 2009, David L. Gold, Studies in Etymology and Etiology, page 781:
text: 2012, Margaret Cho, quoted (mimicking Karl Lagerfeld) in On Making Sense: Queer Race Narratives of Intelligibility
Of course I'm a faggot, darling. I'm a flaming faggot, darling. I am fanning the flames of my faggotry.
coordinate_terms: dyke
scissor sister
qualifier: highly derogatory
glosses: A gay man, especially an effeminate one.
qualifier: highly derogatory
glosses: A non-heterosexual man.
glosses: A man considered weak, effeminate, timid, pathetic, emotional, non-heteronormative in some way.
glosses: An annoying or inconsiderate person.
examples: text: I appoynt thée no more continencie, than to eate while thy bellie is full, nor conﬅancie, but to brawle rather than burne: a filbert is better than a faggot, except it be an Athenian ſhe handfull: you know that Coſmoſophos, euer ſince your laﬅ mariage, how doth the father of your ſonne in law?
ref: 1591, T[homas] L[odge] of Lincolns, Catharos Diogenes in his Singularitie: Wherein is comprehended his merrie baighting fit for all mens benefits: Christened by him, A Nettle for Nice Noſes, London: Iohn Busbie, page 12; republished [Glasgow]: [Hunterian Club], [1875]:
text: she wants me to go to bed to her, and I won't, ... for she is as crooked as a ram's horn ... and as ugly as sin besides ; rot her, the dirty little faggot, she torments me.
ref: 1796, Theobald Wolfe Tone, Autobiography:
text: The woman, in accordance with the custom of the country, raised the Irish cry, in a loud melancholy wail ...
Darby, who prided himself on maintaining silence, could not preserve the consistency of his character upon this occasion ... "Your sowl to the divil, you faggot!" he exclaimed, "what do you mane? The divil whip the tongue out o' you! ..."
ref: 1834, William Carleton, The Midnight Mass:
text: he used to be pretending to be laid up with a sick voice doing his highness to make himself interesting for that old faggot Mrs Riordan that he thought he had a great leg of and she never left us a farthing all for masses for herself and her soul greatest miser ever was actually afraid to lay out 4d for her methylated spirit […]
ref: 1922, James Joyce, chapter 18, in Ulysses:
text: To me she is fractious, tiresome, and a faggot. Yet the subtle desirableness is in her, for me. As it is in the brown hen, or even a sow.
ref: 1925, D. H. Lawrence, Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine and Other Essays: .. Love Was Once a Little Boy:
text: MOTHER: To see who?
DA: You faggot, you; don't let on you don't know.
ref: 1973, Hugh Leonard, Da:
synonyms: word: battle axe
word: bitch
word: brim
word: brimstone
word: cat
word: crow
word: dragon
word: faggot
word: fishwife
word: harpy
word: harridan
word: hellcat
word: jade
word: nag
word: nudnik
word: scold
word: she-devil
word: shrew
word: termagant
word: virago
word: vixen
word: witch
glosses: A shrewish woman.
glosses: A soldier numbered on the muster roll, but not really existing.
examples: text: The Glasgow Herald thought that his attack on the faggots was too serious […]
ref: 1973, Ellen Reid Gold, Gladstone in Midlothian: A Rhetorical Analysis of His 1879 Campaign, page 114:
glosses: A faggot voter.
glosses: A lazy, weak, work-shy person.
Derived terms: antifaggot
assfaggot
fag
fagboy
fag break
fagbutt
fagdom
fagette
fagface
faggot brief
faggotface
faggotier
faggotiest
faggoting
faggot iron
faggotish
faggotism
faggotize
faggotizing
faggotly
faggot marriage
faggotness
faggotry
faggot vote
faggot voter
faggoty
faggy
faglet
fag marriage
f-slur
furfag
furgot
homofaggot
niggerfaggot
San Fagciscan
sap faggot
straggot