fag

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fæɡ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• 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. (UK, Ireland, Australia, colloquial, now offensive 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.

   • 1995, Pulp (lyrics and music), “Common People”, in Different Class:

     Oh, rent a flat above a shop / And cut your hair and get a job / And smoke some fags and play some pool / Pretend you never went to school

   • 2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Alfred A. Knopf, section 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 wet 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.’

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

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

Usage notes

• The usage to refer to a cigarette is no longer readily understood in North America due to the prevalence of the use as a homophobic slur there (see etymology 3). It is now likely to be misunderstood as such or otherwise seen as offensive by people from that region. This can cause problems for people from other regions using the word like this on US-run social media platforms, even in local or regional spaces.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Akin to flag (“droop, tire”). Compare Dutch vaak (“sleepiness”).

Noun

fag (plural fags)

1. (UK, colloquial, now rare, now offensive in US and Canada) A chore: an arduous and tiresome task.
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     1803 (date written), [Jane Austen], Northanger Abbey; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. , volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, , 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC:

     We are sadly off in the country; not but what we have very good shops in Salisbury, but it is so far to go—eight miles is a long way; Mr. Allen says it is nine, measured nine; but I am sure it cannot be more than eight; and it is such a fag—I come back tired to death.

3. (UK, education, historical, colloquial, now offensive in US and Canada) A younger student acting as a servant for senior students.
   • 1791, Richard Cumberland, The Observer, volume 4, page 67:

     I had the character at ſchool of being the very beſt fag that ever came into it.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. , volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     “He was my fag at Eton,” Warrington said. “I ought to have licked him a little more.”

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, page 18:

     A gang of fags was mobbing about by the notice-boards. They fell silent as he approached. He patted one of them on the head. ‘Pretty children,’ he sighed, digging into his waistcoat pocket and pulling out a handful of change. ‘Tonight you shall eat.’ Scattering the coins at their feet, he moved on.

Derived terms

• brain fag

Verb

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

2. (transitive, colloquial, used mainly in passive form, now rare, now offensive in US and Canada) To make exhausted, tired out.
3. (intransitive, colloquial, now rare, now offensive in US and Canada) To droop; to tire.
   • a. 1829, G. Mackenzie, Lives, quoted in 1829, "Fag", entry in The London Encyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary, Volume 9, page 12,

     Creighton with-held his force 'till the Italian began to fag, and then brought him to the ground.

4. (intransitive, UK, education, historical, colloquial, now offensive in US and Canada) (of a younger student) To act as a servant for senior students in many British boarding schools.
5. (transitive, UK, education, historical, colloquial, now offensive in US and Canada) To have (a younger student) act as a servant in this way.
   • 1887, Francis Bacon, Richard Whately, Essays, page 63:

     It is everywhere observed that a liberated slave is apt to make a merciless master, and that boys who have been cruelly fagged at school are cruel faggers.

6. (intransitive, UK, now rare, now offensive in US and Canada) To work hard, especially on menial chores.
   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 1, in Jane Eyre‎, HTML edition:

     This state of things should have been to me a paradise of peace, accustomed as I was to a life of ceaseless reprimand and thankless fagging; but, in fact, my racked nerves were now in such a state that no calm could soothe, and no pleasure excite them agreeably.

   • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, , published 1850, →OCLC:

     I walked about the streets where the best shops for ladies were, I haunted the Bazaar like an unquiet spirit, I fagged through the Park again and again, long after I was quite knocked up.

Derived terms

• (to act as a servant): fagger, faggery, fagging (as a noun), fagmaster
• (to tire): fag out, fagged out

Usage notes

• As with the usage to refer to a cigarette (see etymology 1), these usages are likely to cause offence to or otherwise be seen as slurs by people from North America due to the prevalence of the usage as a slur (see etymology 3) in that region, even if their literal meaning is understood. Even in the UK, due to the rarity of these senses and the prevalence of the usage to refer to a cigarette, these usages may cause confusion or misunderstandings.

Etymology 3

Clipping of faggot.

Noun

fag (plural fags)

1. (chiefly US, Canada, vulgar, usually offensive, sometimes endearing) A homosexual man, especially (usually derogatory) an effeminate or unusual one.
   • 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 with 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.). ...

   • 1960, John Updike, 'Rabbit, Run', page 111:

     When they pick out a set of clubs for him to rent, he is so indifferent and silent the freckled kid in charge stares at him as if he's a moron. The thought flits through his brain that Eccles is known as a fag and he has become the new pet.

   • 2006, Lynn Mickelsen, Confusion Turned to Chaos:

     A couple of days later, Trisha tells Madelyn there is a rumor going around that she's a fag.

   • 2008, Paul Ryan Brewer, Value war: public opinion and the politics of gay rights, →ISBN, 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.

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.

Synonyms

• (male homosexual): See Thesaurus:homosexual person
• (annoying person): See Thesaurus:jerk

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Afg., gaf

Aromanian

Alternative forms

• fagu, fau

Etymology

From Latin fāgus. Compare Romanian fag.

Noun

fag m (plural fadz)

1. beech

Derived terms

• fagã

Related terms

• fãdzet

Danish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /faːˀɣ/, , , IPA^(key): (in derivatives)

Noun

fag n (singular definite faget, plural indefinite fag)

1. subject (of study)
2. trade, craft, profession
3. bay (the distance between two vertical or horizontal supports in roofs and walls)

Inflection

Derived terms

• fagfelt
• fagmand
• faglig
• faglitteratur
• skolefag

Icelandic

Etymology

Borrowed from Danish fag, itself a borrowing from German Fach.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):
• Rhymes: -aːɣ

Noun

fag n (genitive singular fags, nominative plural fög)

1. subject (particular area of study)

Declension

Synonyms

• (subject): námsgrein

Jamaican Creole

Etymology

Derived from English fog.

Noun

fag

1. fog
   • 2012, Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment, Edinburgh: DJB, published 2012, →ISBN, Jiemz 4:14:

     Bot wa unu nuo buot tumaro? Unu no iivn nuo ou unu laif a-go go tumaro. Unu laif komiin jos laik fag. Di fag kom dong fi likl bit, an den az di son kom out so, di fag jos disapier.

     Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. Your life is like a fog that comes in for a little while, then when the sun comes out the fog vanishes away.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Middle Low German or German Low German fak; compare with German Fach.

Noun

fag n (definite singular faget, indefinite plural fag, definite plural faga or fagene)

1. subject (e.g., at school)
2. profession, trade, discipline

Derived terms

References

• “fag” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Middle Low German or German Low German fak; compare with German Fach.

Noun

fag n (definite singular faget, indefinite plural fag, definite plural faga)

1. subject (e.g., at school)
2. profession, trade, discipline

Derived terms

References

• “fag” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek φάγος (phágos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fak/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ak
• Syllabification: fag
• Homophone: -fag

Noun

fag m animal

1. phage, bacteriophage (virus that infects bacteria)

   Synonym: bakteriofag

Declension

Further reading

• fag in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology 1

Inherited from Latin fāgus, from Proto-Italic *fāgos, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂ǵos (“beech tree”).

Noun

fag m (plural fagi)

1. beech (tree of genus Fagus)

Declension

Related terms

• făget

Etymology 2

Inherited from Latin favus, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰōw- (“to swell, grow, thrive, be, live, dwell”).

Noun

fag n (plural faguri)

1. (archaic) honeycomb

   Synonym: fagure

Welsh

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vaɡ/

Noun

fag

1. Soft mutation of bag.

Mutation

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vaːɡ/

Noun

fag

1. Soft mutation of mag.

Mutation

References