Fag

A slur for a gay man, short for faggot and mostly American, recorded since 1921; also a word many gay men now use about themselves.

Fag is a short, sharp word for a gay man, and for most of its life it has been one of the nastiest things you could shout at one. It is the shortened form of faggot, mostly American, and it carries the same contempt in a smaller package. Among gay men it is also a word we use about ourselves, with a grin, a sneer or a shrug, depending on the day.

Who says it decides everything. From a friend at the bar it is camp affection. From a stranger in a car it is a threat. There is no neutral fag.

Where it comes from

Green's Dictionary of Slang records fag for a gay man from 1921, in an American medical journal that asked whether the "fairy" or "fag" really existed. Through the 1930s to the 1950s it shows up in police memoirs, in Jack Kerouac's letters and in William Burroughs's Junkie, and Burroughs also gives us the "fag bar". By then it was a standard American insult, and the compounds tell the story: "fag-bashing", beating up gay men, is recorded from 1980.

From the 1950s it also spread into a general put-down for anyone uncool or unpopular, first in American youth slang. That is the use many of us heard first, years before we knew what it was really about.

Taking it back

Like queer, fag was partly reclaimed by the people it was aimed at. Gay men had been using it among themselves for decades; Green's records "faglish" for gay slang in a 1972 gay dictionary. Today many gay men say it freely about themselves and their friends, often with an ironic edge. Fag hag, for the women who love gay men, is part of the same affectionate, rude family.

Where it still hurts

Reclaimed does not mean harmless. Fag is still what gets yelled before a punch, and many gay men remember it as the word that followed them around for years. When a straight person uses it, even as a joke, most of us hear the old meaning first. Among ourselves, we decide what it means; from outside, it usually means what it always meant.

Close relatives are faggot, the longer and harsher original, homo, and the British poof.

Related terms