Fag
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -æɡ
Origin 1
Probably from fag end ("remnant"), from Middle English fagge ("flap")
Full definition of fag
Noun
fag
(plural fags)- (US, technical) In textile inspections, a rough or coarse defect in the woven fabric.
- (UK, Ireland, Australia, colloquial, dated in US and Canada) A cigarette.
- 1968 January 25, The Bulletin, Oregon,He′d Phase Out Fag IndustryLos Angeles (UPI) - A UCLA professor has called for the phasing out of the cigarette industry by converting tobacco acres to other crops.
- 2001, Oliver Sacks, , (2001), 15,All of them, like my mother, were heavy smokers, and after warming themselves by the fire, they would sit on the sofa and smoke, lobbing their web fag ends into the fire.
- 2011, Bill Marsh, Great Australian Shearing Stories, %22fags%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LG9LT9_BMoLvmAXCkeyyDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false unnumbered page,So I started off by asking the shearers if they minded if I took a belly off while they were having a fag. Then after a while they were asking me. They′d say, ‘Do yer wanta take over fer a bit while I have a fag?’ And then I got better and I′d finish the sheep and they′d say ‘Christ, I haven′t finished me bloody fag yet, yer may as well shear anotherie.’
- (UK, obsolete, colloquial) The worst part or end of a thing.
- 1788, The Royal standard English dictionary‎, Fag, s. the worst part or end of anything.
Origin 2
Probably alteration of flag ("droop, tire")
Noun
fag
(plural fags)- (British, colloquial) A chore; an arduous and tiresome task.
- 1818, Jane Austen, , 1992, Complete Works of Jane Austen, unnumbered page,We are sadly off in the country; not but what we have very good shops in Salisbury, but it is so far to go—eight miles is a long way; Mr. Allen says it is nine, measured nine; but I am sure it cannot be more than eight; and it is such a fag—I come back tired to death.
- (British, archaic, colloquial) In many British boarding schools, a younger student acting as a servant for senior students.
- 1791, Simon Sapling (pseudonym), Richard Cumberland, The Observer: A Collection of Moral, Literary and Familiar Essays, Volume 4, page 67,I had the character at ſchool of being the very beſt fag that ever came into it.
Verb
- (transitive, colloquial, used mainly in passive form) To make exhausted, tired out.
- (intransitive, colloquial) To droop; to tire.
- a. 1829 G. Mackenzie, Lives, quoted in 1829, "Fag", entry in The London Encyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary, Volume 9, page 12,Creighton with-held his force 'till the Italian began to fag, and then brought him to the ground.
- (British, archaic, colloquial) For a younger student to act as a servant for senior students in many British boarding schools.
Origin 3
From faggot.
Noun
fag
(plural fags)- (vulgar, offensive) A homosexual person.
- 1921 John Lind, The Female Impersonators (Historical Documentation of American Slang v. 1, A-G, edited by Jonathan E. Lighter (New York: Random House, 1994) page 716.Androgynes known as “fairies,†“fags,†or “brownies.â€
- 1926, American Neurological Association, In schizophrenics, however, the homosexual outlet is sooner or later ... ideas that strangers call them "cs," "fairy," "woman," "fag," " fruit," etc.). ...
- 2008, Paul Ryan Brewer, Value war: public opinion and the politics of gay rights, ... what appeared to be overt appeals to anti-gay sentiment. When House Majority Whip Dick Armey referred to fellow Congressman Barney Frank as "Barney Fag" in 1995, he suffered a barage of negative publicity that prompted him to explain his choice of words as a slip of the tongue.
- (colloquial, disparaging) In particular, a conspicuously non-straight-acting homosexual male.
- (US, vulgar, offensive) An annoying person.Why did you do that, you fag?
Usage notes
In North America, fag is often considered highly offensive, although some gay people have tried to reclaim it. (Compare faggot.) The humorousness of derived terms fag hag and fag stag is sometimes considered to lessen their offensiveness.