English
faggot
Faggot may come from Middle English fagot ‘faggot, bavin’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fagot‘faggot, bavin’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1591faggot
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fagot‘faggot, bavin’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1591faggot
Earliest quotation: 1591, Thomas Lodge of Lincolns, A Nettle for Nice Noſes: “I appoynt thée no more continencie, than to eate…”
The story
Unlikely from Old Occitan fagot or Italian fagotto, as these appear later than the Old French term. The senses relating to persons, though possibly originating as an extension of the sense "bundle of sticks" (compare baggage), may have been reinforced by fag, from fagging and/or by faygele, from Yiddish פֿייגעלע (feygele, “homosexual”, literally “little bird”), related to English fowl.
Every English word from Middle English fagot
Today it means
noun A bundle of sticks or brushwood intended to be used for fuel tied together for carrying. (Some sources specify that a faggot is tied with two bands or withes, whereas a bavin is tied with just one.)
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English fagot / faggot