Faggot
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /ˈfæɡ.ət/
Alternative forms
Origin
From Middle English, from Old French fagot ("bundle of sticks"), from Old Italian fagotto, diminutive of Vulgar Latin *facus, from Latin fascis ("bundle of wood"). See also fag.
Full definition of faggot
Noun
faggot
(plural faggots)- (rare, dated in US) A burning or smouldering piece of firewood.
- (chiefly British) A bundle of sticks tied together. Some sources specify that a faggot is tied with two bands or withes, whereas a bavin is tied with just one.
- 1853, Sir Francis Bond Head, A faggot of French sticks: or, Paris in 1851, 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.
- (obsolete) Burdensome baggage.
- (UK, Irish, colloquial, pejorative, obsolete) A shrewish woman.
- 1591, Thomas Lodge, Catharos Diogenes in his Singularity (Oxford English Dictionary, faggot, fagot, n., 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 12 Jan 2009)A filbert is better than a faggot, except it be an Athenian she handfull.
- 1796, Theobald Wolfe Tone, Autobiography: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.
- 1834, William Carleton, The Midnight Mass: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! ..."
- 1973, Hugh Leonard, Da:MOTHER: To see who?DA: You faggot, you; don't let on you don't know.
- (offensive, vulgar, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) A gay person, particularly a man.
- 2009, David L. Gold, Studies in Etymology and Etiology, page 781:Fleissner's explanation presumably implies that Dickens meant Fag as an allusion to the derogatory English words fag 'homosexual', and faggot 'homosexual'
- 1914, Louis E. Jackson and C.R. Hellyer, Vocabulary of Criminal Slang (Portland, OR: Modern Printing Co., 1914) page 30:Drag, Example: “All the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight.
- 2004, Dennis Cooper, The Sluts, page 228:We're a hot looking crew that's your average faggot's wet dream, so we pull some pretty max tricks.
- (offensive, vulgar, US) An annoying or inconsiderate person.
- (used in the UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, obsolete in North America) The cast off end of a smoked cigarette.
- (chiefly British) A meatball made from pork.
Coordinate terms
Verb
- Alternative form of fagot