I had always heard that it originally meant a stick to be used for kindling and was adapted to smoking once the tobacco trade was a thing. Probably complete horseshit because no internet when I was a kid, but I never bothered to look it up.
Fag still is a term for a cigarette…
bitjunkie@lemmy.world 1 day ago
FishFace@piefed.social 1 day ago
A faggot originally meant a bundle of sticks or twigs, and they were used to light fires, but I don’t think this has any relation to “fag” as in cigarette. Etymonline says of the latter:
British slang for “cigarette” (originally, especially, the butt of a smoked cigarette), 1888, probably from fag “loose piece, last remnant of cloth” (late 14c., as in fag-end “extreme end, loose piece,” 1610s)
That meaning of faggot, interestingly, comes from the same root as the Roman symbol “fasces” which is a bundle of sticks from which we get the modern word fascism.
Another fun fact: there’s a traditional British dish called faggots which are a kind of meatball made from offal, somewhat similar to haggis but uncased.
ThunderQueen@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I always knew fascists were a bunch of fags
[im a gay tranny, relax]
Niquarl@lemmy.ml 13 hours ago
Weird I only see removed except for your use of fags in plural. The second is removed in your comment too
starik@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Yeah, but only in old-timey countries, like England.