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From: jeff@rtech.ARPA (Jeff Lichtman)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Origin of 'fag' meaning 'cigarette'
Message-ID: <304@rtech.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 22-Apr-85 02:25:13 EST
Article-I.D.: rtech.304
Posted: Mon Apr 22 02:25:13 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Apr-85 07:45:27 EST
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Organization: Relational Technology, Berkeley CA
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> Another word in (British) English with a similar popular etymology is the
> slang word for cigarettes 'fags' (maybe this should be rot13 for the US :-).
> This is popularly supposed to originate from a make of cigarettes that had
> "For A Good Smoke" on the packet. However, it is more likely from "fag-end"
> meaning the stump-end of anything, and then by analogy to "fag".
> 
> Steven Pemberton, CWI, Amsterdam; steven@mcvax.uucp

Webster's 2nd defines "fagot" as "a bundle of sticks, twigs, or small
branches, used for fuel or as a fascine."  This seems to me to be a more
likely origin of the word "fag" meaning "cigarette."
-- 
Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.)
aka Swazoo Koolak

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