What's the etymolgy of the word "fag" ?

Question

I know it's an abbreviation of "*****", a bundle of wood. But my question is : how come "*****" can have turn to mean "gay"?

The word "*****" is originally french, and actually there is a french idiom "sentir le *****" (literally "to smell *****") means to be suspected heretic.

Could the french idiom have something to do with the "modern" american sense of "******" (I think Americans spell this word with 2 g).

Answer 1

Meriam Webster has six separate entries for f a g.

These include:

noun
Etymology: probably short for f a g g o t
Date: 1785
: an English public-school boy who acts as servant to an older schoolmate

and also indicates that the meaning you are asking for comes from f a g g o t

f a g·g o t
Function: noun
Etymology: earlier and dialect, contemptuous word for a woman or child, probably from 1fagot
Date: 1914
usually disparaging : a male homosexual

Main Entry: 1f a g·o t
Variant(s): or f a g·g o t
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English *****, from Anglo-French
Date: 14th century
: bundle : as a: a bundle of sticks b: a bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be shaped by rolling or hammering at high temperature

Answer 2

In the UK this word, which the appalling Yahoo automatic censorship system will not allow me to type, means (a) a bundle of wood (b) a meat ball.

The shortened form "f.ag" means a cigarette.

No idea how the colloquial US meaning came about.

Answer 3

Closest thing I could find was that "F@g" was 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 "fatigue duty", shortened to "f@gging", was ended in the 1970s.

This hints that the epithet has origins in this practice in the UK....

Answer 4

Idk but how about the f-word, did you know that it came from the anglo-saxon word fokken which means "to drive against".