English

Noun

fag ‎(plural fags)

1. (US, technical) In textile inspections, a rough or coarse defect in the woven fabric.
2. (Britain, Ireland, Australia, colloquial, dated in US and Canada) A cigarette.
   • 1968 January 25, The Bulletin, Oregon,

     He′d Phase Out Fag Industry

     Los Angeles (UPI) - A UCLA professor has called for the phasing out of the cigarette industry by converting tobacco acres to other crops.

   • 2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Alfred A. Knopf (2001), 15,

     All of them, like my mother, were heavy smokers, and after warming themselves by the fire, they would sit on the sofa and smoke, lobbing their web fag ends into the fire.

   • 2011, Bill Marsh, Great Australian Shearing Stories, unnumbered page,

     So I started off by asking the shearers if they minded if I took a belly off while they were having a fag. Then after a while they were asking me. They′d say, ‘Do yer wanta take over fer a bit while I have a fag?’ And then I got better and I′d finish the sheep and they′d say ‘Christ, I haven′t finished me bloody fag yet, yer may as well shear anotherie.’

3. (Britain, obsolete, colloquial) The worst part or end of a thing.
   • 1788, William Perry, editor, The Royal standard English dictionary:

     Fag, s. the worst part or end of anything.

Synonyms

• (cigarette): ciggy (Australia), smoke, (Cockney rhyming slang) oily rag

Translations

Etymology 2

Akin to flag ‎(“droop, tire”). Compare Dutch vaak ‎(“sleepiness”).

Noun

fag ‎(plural fags)

1. (Britain, colloquial) A chore; an arduous and tiresome task.
   • 1818, Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, 1992, Complete Works of Jane Austen, unnumbered page,

     We are sadly off in the country; not but what we have very good shops in Salisbury, but it is so far to go—eight miles is a long way; Mr. Allen says it is nine, measured nine; but I am sure it cannot be more than eight; and it is such a fag—I come back tired to death.

2. (Britain, archaic, colloquial) In many British boarding schools, a younger student acting as a servant for senior students.
   • 1791, Simon Sapling (pseudonym), Richard Cumberland, The Observer: A Collection of Moral, Literary and Familiar Essays, Volume 4, page 67,

     I had the character at ſchool of being the very beſt fag that ever came into it.

Verb

fag ‎(third-person singular simple present fags, present participle fagging, simple past and past participle fagged)

1. (transitive, colloquial, used mainly in passive form) To make exhausted, tired out.
2. (intransitive, colloquial) To droop; to tire.
   • a. 1829, G. Mackenzie, Lives, quoted in 1829, "Fag", entry in The London Encyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary, Volume 9, page 12,

     Creighton with-held his force 'till the Italian began to fag, and then brought him to the ground.

3. (Britain, archaic, colloquial) For a younger student to act as a servant for senior students in many British boarding schools.
4. (Britain, archaic) To work hard, especially on menial chores.
   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 1, in Jane Eyre, HTML edition:

     This state of things should have been to me a paradise of peace, accustomed as I was to a life of ceaseless reprimand and thankless fagging; but, in fact, my racked nerves were now in such a state that no calm could soothe, and no pleasure excite them agreeably.

Etymology 3

From faggot.

Noun

fag ‎(plural fags)

1. (vulgar, offensive) A homosexual person.
   • 1921 John Lind, The Female Impersonators (Historical Documentation of American Slang v. 1, A-G, edited by Jonathan E. Lighter (New York: Random House, 1994) page 716.

     Androgynes known as “fairies,” “fags,” or “brownies.”

   • 1926, American Neurological Association; New York Neurological Association et al, Journal of nervous and mental disease, volume 94, page 467:

     In schizophrenics, however, the homosexual outlet is sooner or later ... ideas that strangers call them "cs," "fairy," "woman," "fag," " fruit," etc.). ...

   • 2006, Lynn Mickelsen, Confusion Turned to Chaos

     A couple of days later, Trisha tells Madelyn there is a rumor going around that she's a fag.

   • 2008, Paul Ryan Brewer, Value war: public opinion and the politics of gay rights, ISBN 0742562115, 9780742562110, page 60:

     ... what appeared to be overt appeals to anti-gay sentiment. When House Majority Whip Dick Armey referred to fellow Congressman Barney Frank as "Barney Fag" in 1995, he suffered a barage of negative publicity that prompted him to explain his choice of words as a slip of the tongue.

   1. (colloquial, pejorative) In particular, a conspicuously non-straight-acting homosexual male.
2. (US, vulgar, offensive) An annoying person.

   Why did you do that, you fag?

Usage notes

In North America, fag is often considered highly offensive, although some gay people have tried to reclaim it. (Compare faggot.) The humorousness of derived terms fag hag and fag stag is sometimes considered to lessen their offensiveness.

Derived terms

• fag hag
• fag stag

Synonyms

• (male homosexual): faggot, fairy, homo, queer
• (male homosexual friend): bro, pal
• (annoying person): ass, ****, dick, jerk, prick, putz, ****
• (conspicuous homosexual):
  • (effeminate or prissy): flamer, queen

Translations

Aromanian

Alternative forms

• fagu

Etymology

From Latin fāgus.

Noun

fag m ‎(plural fadz)

1. beech

Related terms

• fãdzet

Derived terms

• fagã

Danish

Etymology

From German Fach ‎(“compartment, drawer, subject”), from Old High German fah ‎(“wall”).

Noun

fag n (singular definite faget, plural indefinite fag)

1. subject
2. trade, craft, profession
3. bay

Inflection

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [faːɣ]
• Rhymes: -aːɣ

Noun

fag n ‎(genitive singular fags, nominative plural fög)

1. subject (particular area of study)

Declension

Lojban

Rafsi

fag

1. rafsi of fagri.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Middle Low German or German Low German fak; compare with German Fach

Noun

fag n ‎(definite singular faget, indefinite plural fag, definite plural faga or fagene)

1. a subject (e.g. at school)
2. a profession, trade, discipline

Derived terms

• fagfelt
• fagfolk
• faglig

References

• “fag” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Middle Low German or German Low German fak; compare with German Fach

Noun

fag n ‎(definite singular faget, indefinite plural fag, definite plural faga)

1. a subject (e.g. at school)
2. a profession, trade, discipline

Derived terms

• fagfelt
• fagfolk

References

• “fag” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fak/

Noun

fag m anim

1. phage

Declension

Romanian

fag

Etymology 1

From Latin fāgus.

Noun

fag m ‎(plural fagi)

1. beech (tree of Fagus family)

Declension

Related terms

• făget

Etymology 2

From Latin favus.

Noun

fag n ‎(plural faguri)

1. (archaic) honeycomb

Synonyms

• fagure