Fag vs Poofter - What's the difference?
fag | poofter |
(US, technical) In textile inspections, a rough or coarse defect in the woven fabric.
(UK, Ireland, Australia, colloquial, dated in US and Canada) A cigarette.
* 1968 January 25,
* 2001 , (2001), 15,
* 2011 , Bill Marsh, Great Australian Shearing Stories ,
(UK, obsolete, colloquial) The worst part or end of a thing.
* {{quote-book
, year=1788
, editor=William Perry
, title=The Royal standard English dictionary?
(British, colloquial) A chore; an arduous and tiresome task.
* 1818 , '', 1992, ''Complete Works of Jane Austen ,
(British, archaic, colloquial) In many British boarding schools, a younger student acting as a servant for senior students.
* 1791 , Simon Sapling (pseudonym), Richard Cumberland, The Observer: A Collection of Moral, Literary and Familiar Essays , Volume 4,
(transitive, colloquial, used mainly in passive form) To make exhausted, tired out.
(colloquial) To droop; to tire.
* G. Mackenzie, Lives'', quoted in 1829 , "Fag", entry in ''The London Encyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary , Volume 9,
(British, archaic, colloquial) For a younger student to act as a servant for senior students in many British boarding schools.
(vulgar, offensive) A homosexual person.
* 1921 John Lind, The Female Impersonators (
* {{quote-journal
, year=1926
, author=American Neurological Association
, coauthors=New York Neurological Association et al
, journal=Journal of nervous and mental disease
, volume=94
, page=467
* 2006 , Lynn Mickelsen, Confusion Turned to Chaos
* {{quote-book
, year=2008
, author=Paul Ryan Brewer
, title=Value war: public opinion and the politics of gay rights
, page=60
# (colloquial, disparaging) In particular, a conspicuously non-straight-acting homosexual male.
(US, vulgar, offensive) An annoying person.
(UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, pejorative, slang) A male homosexual, especially an effeminate one; a pansy.
* 1943 , John Bostock and Evan Jones, The nervous soldier: a handbook for the prevention, detection and treatment of nervous invalidity in war ,
* 1964 , Ian Fleming, You Only Live Twice ,
* 2007 , John Mendoza, Mad Blue Smoke , Pasini Press, Melbourne, Australia,
As nouns the difference between fag and poofter
is that fag is in textile inspections, a rough or coarse defect in the woven fabric while poofter is a male homosexual, especially an effeminate one; a pansy.As a verb fag
is to make exhausted, tired out.fag
English
Etymology 1
Probably fromNoun
(en noun)The Bulletin, Oregon,
- He?d Phase Out Fag Industry
- Los Angeles (UPI) - A UCLA professor has called for the phasing out of the cigarette industry by converting tobacco acres to other crops.
- All of them, like my mother, were heavy smokers, and after warming themselves by the fire, they would sit on the sofa and smoke, lobbing their web fag ends into the fire.
unnumbered page,
- So I started off by asking the shearers if they minded if I took a belly off while they were having a fag'. Then after a while they were asking me. They?d say, ‘Do yer wanta take over fer a bit while I have a '''fag'''?’ And then I got better and I?d finish the sheep and they?d say ‘Christ, I haven?t finished me bloody ' fag yet, yer may as well shear anotherie.’
citation, passage=Fag , s. the worst part or end of anything.}}
Synonyms
* (cigarette) ciggy (Australia), smoke, (Cockney rhyming slang) oily ragEtymology 2
Probably alteration ofNoun
(en noun)unnumbered page,
- We are sadly off in the country; not but what we have very good shops in Salisbury, but it is so far to go—eight miles is a long way; Mr. Allen says it is nine, measured nine; but I am sure it cannot be more than eight; and it is such a fag —I come back tired to death.
page 67,
- I had the character at ?chool of being the very be?t fag that ever came into it.
Verb
page 12,
- Creighton with-held his force 'till the Italian began to fag , and then brought him to the ground.
Etymology 3
From (faggot).Noun
(en noun)Historical Documentation of American Slangv. 1, A-G, edited by Jonathan E. Lighter (New York: Random House, 1994) page 716.
- Androgynes known as “fairies,” “fags,” or “brownies.”
citation, passage=In schizophrenics, however, the homosexual outlet is sooner or later ... ideas that strangers call them "cs," "fairy," "woman," "fag ," " fruit," etc.). ... }}
- A couple of days later, Trisha tells Madelyn there is a rumor going around that she's a fag .
citation, isbn=0742562115, 9780742562110 , passage=... what appeared to be overt appeals to anti-gay sentiment. When House Majority Whip Dick Armey referred to fellow Congressman Barney Frank as "Barney Fag " in 1995, he suffered a barage of negative publicity that prompted him to explain his choice of words as a slip of the tongue.}}
- Why did you do that, you fag ?
Usage notes
In North America, fag is often considered highly offensive, although some gay people have tried to reclaim it. (Compare faggot.) The humorousness of derived terms fag hag'' and ''fag stag is sometimes considered to lessen their offensiveness.Derived terms
* fag hag * fag stagSynonyms
* (male homosexual) faggot, fairy, homo, queer * (male homosexual friend) bro, pal * (annoying person) ass, asshole, dick, jerk, prick, putz, schmuck * (conspicuous homosexual) ** (effeminate or prissy) flamer, queenpoofter
English
Alternative forms
* poofta * pooftahNoun
(en noun)page 11,
- Hallucinations, again, are the expression of repressed systems of ideas and desires; for example a man who has strong repressed homo-sexual tendencies may hear voices calling him a poofter .
page 36,
- "You pommy poofter'. You give me any more of that liberal crap and I'll have your balls for a bow tie." Bond said mildly, "What's a ' poofter ?" "What you'd call a pansy. No," Dikko Henderson got to his feet and fired a string of what sounded like lucid Japanese at the man behind the bar,.
page 113,
- I just ignored them because I didn't think what I did made me a poofter'. Me and Dwayne were best friends, and it was only because there were no girls around, and I liked it. My father taught me that homosexuality was unnatural, and that ' poofters were men who couldn't form relationships with women because they were horrifying, repulsive queers.