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Faggot, often shortened to fag, is a pejorative term used chiefly in North America primarily to refer to a gay man.〔(【引用サイトリンク】accessdate = November 16, 2013 )〕〔2008, Paul Ryan Brewer, Value war: public opinion and the politics of gay rights, page 60〕 Alongside its use to refer to gay men in particular, it may also be used as a pejorative term for a "repellent male" or a homosexual person of either gender.〔〔Studies in Etymology and Etiology, David L. Gold, Antonio Lillo Buades, Félix Rodríguez González - 2009 page 781〕 Its use has spread from the United States to varying extents elsewhere in the English-speaking world through mass culture, including film, music, and the Internet. ==Etymology== The American slang term is first recorded in 1914, the shortened form ''fag'' shortly after, in 1921. Its immediate origin is unclear, but it is based on the word for "bundle of sticks", ultimately derived, via Old French, Italian and Vulgar Latin, from Latin ''fascis''.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Faggot )〕 The word ''faggot'' has been used in English since the late 16th century as an abusive term for women, particularly old women,〔 and reference to homosexuality may derive from this,〔〔 〕 as female terms are often used with reference to homosexual or effeminate men (cf. ''nancy'', ''sissy'', ''queen''). The application of the term to old women is possibly a shortening of the term "faggot-gatherer", applied in the 19th century to people, especially older widows, who made a meagre living by gathering and selling firewood.〔 It may also derive from the sense of "something awkward to be carried" (compare the use of the word ''baggage'' as a pejorative term for old people in general).〔 An alternative possibility is that the word is connected with the practice of fagging in British private schools, in which younger boys performed (potentially sexual) duties for older boys, although the word ''faggot'' was never used in this context, only ''fag''. There is a reference to the word ''faggot'' being used in 17th-century Britain to refer to a "man hired into military service simply to fill out the ranks at muster", but there is no known connection with the word's modern pejorative usage.〔 The Yiddish word ''faygele'', lit. "little bird", has been claimed by some to be related to the American usage. The similarity between the two words makes it possible that it might at least have had a reinforcing effect.〔〔 There used to be an urban legend, called an "oft-reprinted assertion" by Douglas Harper, that the modern slang meaning developed from the standard meaning of ''faggot'' as "bundle of sticks for burning" with regard to burning at the stake. This is unsubstantiated; the emergence of the slang term in 20th-century American English is unrelated to historical death penalties for homosexuality.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Faggot (slang)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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