fag out

[James Harbeck]

>so this is bleached "fag" (parallel to bleached "gay"), a slur that
>has lost its specificity -- it's not about sexuality -- but has
>preserved the component of derogation.  ("brokeback" went down this
>road in a matter of weeks or months.)  packer was derogating rose,
>but in the friendly, even affectionate, fashion of buddy-buddy
>insults, which often turn on imputations of insufficient masculinity.

I find this a curious statement, as it seems to assume that the
meaning "homosexual" for "fag" is prior, when in fact the "work to
exhaustion" meaning is prior. The meaning "homosexual" is a
shortening of "faggot," which is a term that was applied to
homosexuals after it was applied as a term of abuse to burdensome old
women, and apparently as an extension of that; that term in turn
comes from the meaning "bundle" or "burden," which is extended from
the original "bundle of sticks." See
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-fag1.htm -- my source on this is
Michael Quinion, backed up by suitable evidence in the OED. (We might
compare the use "bagggage" which we see in Shakespeare applied to
burdensome women.) This usage was normal enough in James Joyce's time
for him to use it in Molly Bloom's monologue at the end of Ulysses.
"Fag" for homsexual shows up in the early decades of the 20th
century, whereas "fag" meaning to be exhausted (to flag -- a possible
source) has citations from the 16th century.

I've certainly heard "fag" used meaning "exhaustion"; "brain fag" was
once a medical diagnosis (OED has it as "exhaustion of the brain by
prolonged mental strain"). It's a British usage, though, so no
surprise it seems odd to North Americans.

Ciao,
James Harbeck.

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