A faggot, as we know, is an insulting term for a male homosexual.
A “gayette,” perhaps has been used with a gay woman; if not, it sounds cute in context.
Ditto in the case of culinary context. They both are almost identical foods, from England and France, respectively. I think that’s an amazing coincidence. They are small hamburger-sized servings of ground-up pork meat, mostly offal (particularly the Brit one, I believe) some chopped strong green (eg chard), wrapped in caul fat and baked.
Etymology help, anyone?
Italian “liver,” fegato. But aside from that I got nothin’.
ETA: Faggots are also called–only in Yorkshire?–“savory ducks,” or so I read. Could also force that in gay cultural context, I suppose.
But, to address your specific points, the word “faggot” to mean the English [del]disgusting dish[/del] ground-up pork meat, mostly offal (particularly the Brit one, I believe) some chopped strong green (eg chard), wrapped in caul fat and baked appears in print in 1851. The meaning of “faggot” to represent a homosexual male is strictly U.S. in orgin, appearing in print in 1914.
As to when “gayette” first appears, I don’t have a clue, You don’t even cite where it HAS been used.
According to the OED, not only did “faggot” originally mean a bundle of things tied together, but as a derogatory term it originally referred to a woman. The OED has cites for this sense from the late sixteenth century, whereas the sense referring to a male homosexual does not occur before the twentieth century.
It’s not hard to see how a term of abuse for women gets transferred to male homosexuals; it’s an imputation of effeminacy. Less obvious is how a term meaning “bundle” becomes an epithet for a woman. This is entirely speculative, but two possiblities occur to me:
First, a bundle of thing tied together is generally fairly untidy, and “faggot” might have been applied to a woman to suggest that she was untidy, disorganised, confused, etc.
Secondly, “faggot” most commonly referred to a bundle of sticks tied together and used as fuel, very often in the context of burning at the stake. In fact another sense of “faggot”, dating from the mid-sixteenth century, is “punishment for heresy”. So calling a woman a faggot might suggest that she was punitive; a nag, a scold.