However, I am not sure whether the connection to the Yiddish faygeleh should be dismissed that quickly. Faygeleh, as about 75% of all Yiddish words (see Yiddish, shmiddish), has German origins (“Vögele” being a diminutive of “Vogel” - “bird”). A verb derived from this noun, “vögeln”, means “shag”. The noun “Vögele” in turn is also applied to a man who is sexually hyperactive and indiscriminate about the partners and methods involved, at least in some dialects. This does not exactly match “homosexual”, but it gives a clue where the connection comes from.
From reading a few medieval texts in school I recall that these meanings go back a long time, maybe to the time when Jews picked up the words and used them for Yiddish. At least they are definitely not a modern invention.
Of course, words and phrases with sexual connotations were the most popular back at school, so they stick to my mind.
If nothing else, that’s what I can throw in. Maybe somebody else can offer deeper insights.
While it is impossible to say that faygele had no influence at all, we know the history of faggot meaning “annoying animal” and “annoying woman”, and there are any number of words that have shifted from some kind of negative reference to a woman to a negative reference to a gay man. So there is no need to introduce faygele into the theory, and neither is there any evidence. (“It might have happened” isn’t evidence.)
After rereading the original article, it all boils down to:
So, there is also no evidence that “annoying woman/child” transformed into homosexual man, just as there is no evidence for faygele. In the absence of a clear link, it seems both theories can stand as working models until something firm can be proven.
This thread would not be complete without a link to Eve’s thread on “Mr. Brain’s Faggots” – probably one of the funniest threads of Dopers riffing on a double-entendre theme ever!
I was going to suggest Faggot --> fagotto (oboe) --> oboe --> hobo --> homo, but upon research I found out that the fagotto was actually a bassoon, so this doesn’t work.
Priests in medieval times (or thereabouts) told their congregations that homosexuals would burn in hell like faggots. Faggots being the kindling one would use to start a fire.
No idea on the veracity, but it fits. Anyone confirm or deny?
I think the former is a bit more plausible since the word for “annoying woman/child” and “homosexual man” is spelled and pronounced the same. Only a shift in definition is required for that “faggot” to be the forebearer of the “faggot” we all know and love. In the latter case, we require a shift in pronounciation (faygele to faggot) and meaning (“little bird” to “homosexual man”). Seems less likely.
No. The one theory follows a well established pattern of semantic shift. The other theory is a wild guess that supposes one word could transform into another word just because they have two letters in common, and assumes a Jewish connection which is not in evidence.
You say, “The relationship, if any, between faggot-as-bundle-of-sticks and faggot-as-shrewish-woman is unknown.”
To me, it is as plain as day.
Witches were burned at the stake.
Witches were seen as rebellious, uppity women.
They were women not playing their gender role. They could be burned for this.
Similarly, homosexuals were men not playing their gender role.
Witches were people who had contact with the fairies.
Carnivalesque festivals associated with witching-days included cross-dressing. Mumming, which is connected to witches, included cross-dressing.
Witches, fairies, and fags therefore go together.
And, btw, to say that homosexuals were sometimes required to wear badges of faggots on them, and then deny any connection between the idea of faggots and homosexuals seems ridiculous to me.
Why has no one mentioned any connection with the term “flaming”, a word often used to describe overtly feminine gay men?
I always assumed that was the link.
I doubt there’s any written record to connect fag/faggot with that use of flaming/flamer, because if there were, one of the staff lingo-bingos would have brought it up by now.
What’s our earliest known cite for phrases such as “flaming queen”?
If it were common ca the turn of the 20th century to refer to openly gay men as “flaming homosexuals”, then it’s easy to see how there could be a transition to “flaming faggot” and other such usage.
The OED2 doesn’t even list “flaming” in that sense, so I suspect it was still an “in-group” use as late as 1970. It lists “flaming” as a substitute profanity (as in “flaming drunk”), and also mentions “flaming youth”, a popular phrase of the 1920’s.
If you want to solve a mystery, try to learn how “faggot” came to mean “unpleasant woman” in the 19th century. We know what happened afterwards.
As for the second bit: (1) no thanks, that’s a mystery that’s clearly beyond my ken; (2) are you claiming that the link between these meanings of “faggot” [shrewish woman and gay man] has been established?
There are a gazillion instances of a word or phrase for a woman becoming a word or phrase for a gay man – sometimes, though not always, originating within the gay community itself. It’s practically expected.
That’s not the reason why fairy/witch connection is irrelevant. There were indeed certain strands of early-modern ideas about witchcraft that did link witches to fairies. Scottish beliefs about them are the best-known and best-documented examples.
But this is irrelevant because the fairies in question were not at all like modern images of fairies. Fairies then were just little people with supernatural powers. It was only later, after they had been given a radical image change, mostly at the hands of Victorian artists and writers wishing to sentimentalise them, that it become possible to link fairies to ideas of effeminacy etc. Moreover, that same process of sentimentalisation also killed off any lingering association between fairies and witchcraft. Those who first equated homosexuals with fairies would not have equated fairies with witches.
For example, the word “gay”. Which was first applied to woman (generally of ill repute).
I’m not going to put this forth as an actual origin (particularly as “to fag” and “faggot” seem to have differnet origins themselves) but in terms of re-enforcing the use, there is of course the British public school tradition of younger boys “fagging” for the upperclassmen…doing the drudge work for them. Which would quite possibly involve drugery of a sexual nature.