OFF: More Brit Slang!

[Jill Strobridge]

Fag appears to mean "to become weary or tired out or to work hard".
Hence a "fag" as a schoolboy slave came to be the description of someone
who did all your work for you - which I guess is more or less what
happened sometimes.    A "fag end" was the end of a web of cloth that
hung loose or the untwisted end of a piece of rope (I quote from my
dictionary here!) - i.e. the scraggy bit left over that was useless This
meaning expanded to include the stump of a cigar or cigarette and then
an inferior cigarette and then any cigarette at all.

The original derviation is uncertain but it is suggested that it comes
from the meaning of "flag" which is "to droop" which comes from French
"flac" and Latin "flaccus" - ultimately "flacid".

The problems of living in a much invaded island universe..........
jill
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Jill Strobridge <jill at theta-orionis.freeserve.co.uk>
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----- Original Message -----
From: John H. McCartney <scorch at TE-CATS.COM>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 7:10 PM
Subject: Re: OFF: Brit Slang!


> > Ok...here is one.....the term "Fag" in "amerikun" slang connotates
someone
> > attracted to the same sex.   "Fag" in the UK is a cigarette.
> >
> > When I first heard of a cigarrette referred to as a "Fag", it made
me laugh
> > due to the other connotation, and it was a curiosity as to how that
came
> > about to begin with.
>
>
> My suspicion is that the term "fag" in reference to cigarettes comes
> from the word "faggot", which originally was in reference to a stick,
> as in "a bundle of faggots". That usage dates back to the middle ages.
> I figure that cigs are somewhat sticklike.....
>
> As to how faggot got it's present connotation I've no idea.
>
>
> scorch
>