fag out

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Packer: "You always fag out on that one for me."
>
>Rose laughed, seemingly unaffected by Packer's use of a term that
>often is used as a slur for gays.
>
>Packer continued: "You always say, `Yeah, I'm gonna be the runner'
>and then you never show up. But I'm sure they could find a place for
>you. You have all the connections in the world."
>
>Packer said Wednesday that that the term "has nothing to do with
>sexual connotation. I think Charlie was once voted one of the most
>eligible bachelors. It has to do with fatigue."
>
>Some background: Packer and Rose have been friendly for years, with
>Rose having joked that he would like to serve as a runner--basically
>a gofer--during the Final Four so he can watch the games from press row.
>
>... "It has no relationship to gay people," Packer said Wednesday.
>"He's never up to doing the work."
>
>The first definition of "fag" in the Random House Unabridged
>Dictionary is "to tire or weary by labor; exhaust (often followed by
>out): The long climb fagged us out."
>
>CBS spokeswoman LeslieAnne Wade defended the 67-year-old Packer,
>saying his use of the term was "generational."
>
>But she wished Packer had not used the term "because of the climate
>we live in," she said.
>-----
>
>i'm trying to sort out the usage here.
>
>first, the Random House cite is for *transitive* "fag (out)", while
>packer's use was *intransitive* (with two PP complements, "on that
>one", i.e. on serving as runner, and the experiencer "for me").
>dictionaries generally seem to list an intransitive "fag" 'toil', for
>example:
>
>   OED: to do something that wearies one; to work hard; to labour,
>strain, toil
>
>   AHD4: to work to exhaustion; toil
>
>   NOAD2: to work hard, esp. at a tedious job or task
>
>   M-W Online: to work hard: TOIL
>
>even with the component of exhaustion, this intransitive "fag"
>doesn't fit in packer's sentence; he certainly wasn't saying that
>rose always works hard, to the point of exhaustion, for him.
>
>NOAD2 lists an intransitive sense that's a bit closer: to grow
>weary.  (very close to "flag".)  but that's inchoative, and also
>doesn't quite fit in packer's sentence, especially with "out" and
>those two complements.
>
>packer has been reported as sticking to the dictionary, citing the
>transitive verb "fag":
>
>   Packer said by "fag out," he meant the Dictionary.com definition,
>"to tire or weary by labor; exhaust."
>   http://www.outsports.com/cbb/20062007/packer0403.htm
>
>Outsports tells us that on-line (non-scholarly) dictionaries
>generally have entries for "fag out", with pretty much the same
>definitions: e.g., the Urban Dictionary's "To bail on something,
>'pussy out'."  this seems to me to be right on the nose.  the
>expression is slang, and belongs to a small family of idioms of the
>form "X out (on someone)", where X is a verb zero-derived from a noun
>denoting a weak or ineffectual person: wimp, wuss, pussy.  (lots and
>lots of hits for "wimp out" and "wuss out".)  call this the WimpOut
>pattern.  the meaning of the pattern is, as UsingEnglish.com says for
>"wimp out" itself, 'not be brave enough to do something' -- or, more
>precisely, to fail to do something because of a lack of balls. ....

There is probably a lot of conflation and confusion involved in such
expressions.

I would add that "fag out" (v.i.) as used here evokes -- to me -- not so
much "wimp out" etc. as "crap out".

"He wimped/pussied/etc. out" would usually mean "He failed [something]
because of weakness/cowardice", while "He crapped out" would usually mean
simply "He failed [something]" (could be because of fatigue, laziness,
injury, whatever).

Maybe "fag out" here represents "get fagged and crap/bail/back out" or
something like that. Hard to say (hard for me anyway).

-- Doug Wilson


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