Poofter
Australian and British slang for a gay or effeminate man, the long form of poof, recorded in Australia since 1889 and still a common slur.
Poofter is the long form of poof, and Australia's own favorite word for a gay man. It means the same thing, a gay or effeminate man, but it has more bounce and more spite: two syllables you can drag out across a pub or a footy ground. Spelled poofter, poofta or pooftah, it is still one of the best-known anti-gay slurs in Australia and Britain.
Like poof, it is also a word gay Australians and Brits use about themselves, sometimes defiantly, sometimes just for a laugh.
Where it comes from
Green's Dictionary of Slang marks poofter as originally Australian and finds it for a gay man in 1889, with plenty of examples in Australian newspapers in the early 1900s. It is clearly built on poof, which was already in use in Britain, with an extra Aussie ending. From Australia it traveled back to Britain, and later turned up in the United States.
Over the 20th century the meaning widened, as these words always do. From the late 1930s, first in Britain, a man could be called a poofter just for having "unmanly" interests like art or reading, and by the 1950s an Australian could get it for looking effeminate, gay or not. Liking books was enough.
Poofter-bashing
The word's ugliest family member is poofter-bashing, the beating of gay men. Green's earliest examples come from the Australian gay writer and activist Dennis Altman, in 1973 and 1974, writing about the violence gay men faced. There was an older relative, poofter-rorter, recorded in Australia in 1967 for a man who beat up gay men. These words did not just insult; they named something that happened, regularly, in parks and at cruising spots.
In Australia poofter is not quaint. It was a standard street slur for most of the last century, and for many gay men it still brings back the fear that came with it.
Taking it back
Gay Australians have taken it back, with the same irony Americans bring to fag and queer. Said by a gay man about himself or his mates, poofter is cheeky, warm and a little bit proud. Said by a stranger, it still means what it always meant. Close relatives are fairy, nancy and homo.
Related terms
Sources 1
- Green, Jonathon. "poofter, n." Green's Dictionary of Slang, online edition. https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/dk4zqci