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[–] 45 points 4 months ago (11 children)

Fag still is a term for a cigarette...

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (9 children)

    I had always heard that it originally meant a stick to be used for kindling and was adapted to smoking once the tobacco trade was a thing. Probably complete horseshit because no internet when I was a kid, but I never bothered to look it up.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (8 children)

    A faggot originally meant a bundle of sticks or twigs, and they were used to light fires, but I don't think this has any relation to "fag" as in cigarette. Etymonline says of the latter:

    British slang for "cigarette" (originally, especially, the butt of a smoked cigarette), 1888, probably from fag "loose piece, last remnant of cloth" (late 14c., as in fag-end "extreme end, loose piece," 1610s)

    That meaning of faggot, interestingly, comes from the same root as the Roman symbol "fasces" which is a bundle of sticks from which we get the modern word fascism.

    Another fun fact: there's a traditional British dish called faggots which are a kind of meatball made from offal, somewhat similar to haggis but uncased.

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  • [+] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (7 children)
  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (3 children)

    Weird I only see removed except for your use of fags in plural. The second is removed in your comment too

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  • [+] 1 point 4 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)