# New, maybe, idea for faggot to homosexual

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-maybe-idea-for-faggot-to-homosexual/600102>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [October 19, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-maybe-idea-for-faggot-to-homosexual/600102 "2011-10-19T02:42:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-maybe-idea-for-faggot-to-homosexual/600102/1 "2011-10-19T02:42:10Z")

</div>

I did a couple of searches without hitting anything so here goes,

I’m reading _Life on the Mississippi_, by\*\* Mark Twain\*\*, originally published in 1883 and I came across an interesting use of fag on the last page of chapter 32. They’re describing a town that was wiped out by a change in the river, it washed it away leaving (paraphasing) _neither hide nor hair, stick or shingle except the fag end of a shanty and a chimney you can see sticking up out of the water_.

Now they don’t explain what the fag end of a shanty is, but if it’s synonymous with back end, tail end, bottum end, etc., the leap to homosexual, or cigarette isn’t too far.

Tried to post a link, but can’t from this location.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-maybe-idea-for-faggot-to-homosexual/600102/2 "2011-10-19T03:26:15Z")

</div>

> [@outlierrn](#):
>
> Now they don’t explain what the fag end of a shanty is, but if it’s synonymous with back end, tail end, bottum end, etc., the leap to homosexual, or cigarette isn’t too far.

[The fag end](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fag%20end) of something in that usage goes back to at least the 16th century. It is easy to find hundreds of cites going back to the early 1700s. So the leap would have to be 200 or more years.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-maybe-idea-for-faggot-to-homosexual/600102/3 "2011-10-19T18:51:39Z")

</div>

Ah, well, there you go.