Etymology of 'faggot'

[snopes]

Comment: A question:

I have heard that the word 'faggot' came from the Middle Ages because
queer people were burned at the stake as sort of a 'warmup act' for the
witches.

Yet, I find sources that say it only goes back to the early 20th century
to refer to gay men.

[Tori]

From http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=faggot

The oft-heard statement that male homosexuals were called faggots in reference to their being burned at the stake is an etymological urban legend. Burning was sometimes a punishment meted out to homosexuals in Christian Europe (on the suggestion of the Biblical fate of Sodom and Gomorrah), but in England, where parliament had made homosexuality a capital offense in 1533, hanging was the method prescribed. Any use of faggot in connection with public executions had long become an English historical obscurity by the time the word began to be used for "male homosexual" in 20th century American slang

[llewtrah]

Can we start a new one that suggests the term came into use because during {insert historical period of your choice} gay men in the UK were minced into patties and served with peas like pork faggots?

[Roadhog]

A faggot is a pile of sticks, hence the gay connotation!

[snopes]

Comment: A friend recently told me that homosexuals were tossed on the
fires of witches burned at the stake to get the flames hot enough to send
the poor woman to hell and that is why homosexuals are revered to as
faggots.

[GenYus234]

Are gay men particularly flammable compared to straight men or women?

I would think drunkards would be a better accelerant for witch burning myself.

[Avril]

According to the OED, "faggot" as an insult was used as a term of contempt for women first (in the sixteenth century and beyond). Its use as slang for homosexuals originated in the United States in the twentieth century. It seems to have eclipsed the word's use as an insult for women around that time. I wonder whether it was a way of using an existing insult for women to insult men deemed effeminiate.

[GenYus234]

Makes sense. "Nancy-boy" or "girlie-man" are also insults for men not deemed to meet the proper "male" criteria.

[samclem]

Originally Posted by Avril

According to the OED, "faggot" as an insult was used as a term of contempt for women first (in the sixteenth century and beyond). Its use as slang for homosexuals originated in the United States in the twentieth century. It seems to have eclipsed the word's use as an insult for women around that time. I wonder whether it was a way of using an existing insult for women to insult men deemed effeminiate.

Almost certainly.

Those who have studied the term " notice with some words a progression of usage that morphs along the lines of "woman/girl" > "woman/girl/child" > "effeminate male" > "homosexual male."

The word "fairy" has also morphed along the same lines.

[Black Belt and Socks]

Is "fag" also used as a slang term for cigarette in the UK? Seems I remember the term used in the Andy Capp cartoons.

BB "bum a fag, might I?" &S

[Floater]

Take look at this: http://www.hash.st/ockholm/ukus.html#Fag

[kia]

Originally Posted by Black Belt and Socks

Is "fag" also used as a slang term for cigarette in the UK?

It's used to refer to cigarettes here in Australia too, though maybe not as much as the UK. If someone said "I need to go down the street and buy some fags" you'd immediately assume a packet of cigarettes, not the alternative possibility, even though it would be more common to just call them smokes.