fag

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æɡ

Etymology 1

Probably from fag end (“remnant”), from Middle English fagge (“flap”)

Noun

fag (plural fags)

1. (US, technical) In textile inspections, a rough or coarse defect in the woven fabric.
2. (US, technical) A photovoltaic cell that is no longer in use.
3. (UK, Ireland, Australia, colloquial, dated in US and Canada) A cigarette.
   • 1968 January 25, The Bulletin, Oregon,

     He′d Phase Out Fag Industry

     Los 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, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Alfred A. Knopf (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, 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.’

4. (UK, obsolete, colloquial) The worst part or end of a thing.
   • 1788, William Perry editor, The Royal standard English dictionary‎^[1]:

     Fag, s. the worst part or end of anything.

Synonyms

• (cigarette): ciggy (Australia), smoke, (Cockney rhyming slang) oily rag

Translations

Etymology 2

Probably alteration of flag (“droop, tire”)

Noun

fag (plural fags)

1. (UK, colloquial) A chore; an arduous and tiresome task.
2. (UK, archaic, colloquial) In many British boarding schools, a younger student acting as a servant for senior students.

   • "I had the character at school of being the very best fag that ever came into it." - Richard Cumberland’s The Observer of 1785

Verb

fag (third-person singular simple present fags, present participle fagging, simple past and past participle fagged)

1. (transitive, colloquial, used mainly in passive form) To make exhausted, tired out.
2. (intransitive, colloquial) To droop; to tire.
   • G. Mackenzie

     Creighton withheld his force till the Italian began to fag.

3. (UK, archaic, colloquial) For a younger student to act as a servant for senior students in many British boarding schools.

Etymology 3

From faggot.

Noun

fag (plural fags)

1. (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.”

   • 1926, American Neurological Association; New York Neurological Association et al, Journal of nervous and mental disease, volume 94, page 467: 

     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^[2], ISBN 0742562115, 9780742562110, page 60:

     ... 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.

   1. (colloquial, disparaging) In particular, a conspicuously non-straight-acting homosexual male.
2. (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.

Derived terms

• fag hag
• fag stag
• fagmosexual

Synonyms

• (male homosexual): faggot, fairy, homo, queer
• (male homosexual friend): bro, pal
• (annoying person): ass, asshole, dick, jerk, prick, putz, schmuck
• (conspicuous homosexual):
  • (effeminate or prissy): flamer, queen

Translations

Alternative forms

• fagu

Etymology

From Latin fagus.

Noun

fag

1. beech

Etymology

From German Fach (“compartment, drawer, subject”), from Old High German fah (“wall”).

Noun

fag n (singular definite faget, plural indefinite fag)

1. subject
2. trade, craft, profession
3. bay

Inflection

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [faːx]

Noun

fag n (genitive singular fags, plural fög)

1. subject (particular area of study)

Declension

Rafsi

fag

1. rafsi of fagri.

Noun

fag

1. subject (school)

Noun

fag m

1. phage

fag

Etymology 1

From Latin fāgus.

Noun

fag m (plural fagi)

1. beech (tree of Fagus family)

Declension

Etymology 2

From Latin favus.

Noun

fag n (plural faguri)

1. (archaic) honeycomb

Synonyms

• fagure