On Sun, 19 Mar 2023 at 21:28, Bob Bridges <robhbrid...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I'm pretty sure it's not only British authors, but American too if one goes > back far enough, whom I caught using "faggot" to mean a piece of wood for a > fire. From there to a cigarette is an easy step.
The root is from "bundle" of sticks and small pieces of wood, and by expansion to bundles of other things. > How the word came to describe an underclassman at a British boarding school, > required to run errands for upper classmen, I'm not sure. I don't think it does - I believe the errand-running boys at certain British schools were "fag"s, which has other roots entirely - probably a variation on "flag" as in become tired out, says OED. Probably these two words have been conflated only in 20th century chiefly American use into the once common derogatory term. BTW your favorite C. S. Lewis is a quoted source for the verb "fag": 4. School slang (originally and chiefly in certain British independent boarding schools for boys). Now historical and rare. a. transitive. Of a senior pupil: to make (a junior pupil) one's fag (fag n.3 1b). Also: to compel (a junior pupil) to carry out a task or chore. Also with complement indicating the nature of the task or chore. [...] 1955 C. S. Lewis Surprised by Joy vi. 96 This could be done only if one escaped being fagged as a shoeblack. Tony H. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
