faggot

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   historical: a bundle of sticks or branches bound together for fuel

   The workers stacked each faggot of brushwood beside the kiln.

2. 2
   noun

   British regional: a seasoned ball of chopped meat, traditionally made with pork offal

   The pub served a faggot with peas and thick gravy.

3. 3
   noun

   extremely offensive: an anti-gay slur used abusively of a person

   The word faggot is an extremely offensive slur and should not be used for a person.

From Middle English fagot and Old French fagot, meaning a bundle of sticks; the ultimate origin is uncertain. The regional food sense probably refers to the shape of a bound bundle. The anti-gay slur is first recorded in early twentieth-century American English and likely grew from an earlier contemptuous term for a person; the burning-at-the-stake story is unsupported.

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