Time The Slang Word Faggot example essay topic

In popular culture words are often taken out of context to mean something other than what you will read in a dictionary, commonly referred to as slang. Classic examples of this throughout recent history is the word "bad" meaning good, or "sucks" implying bad, or "blows" also, oddly enough meaning bad. If it is not already evident slang almost never makes any matter of the original meaning of a word. One of the newest editions to the dictionary of slang can be heard walking down the hall of any school, college, or university. You will undoubtedly hear the word faggot within a few minutes of being on campus. Over the many thousand years of the evolution of a spoken word the harmless utterance has now taken on a new meaning and became an extremely negative and hurt-filled word, faggot.

Researching the word faggot first brings forth the Latin word "fasces" . Originating during the Roman Empire the fasces was an axe surrounded by a tightly wrapped bundle of sticks and a major symbol of the power and authority an individual possessed. It is said that fasces were carried as symbols of power by Roman lictor's in front of certain important people such as kings, consuls, vestal virgins, and proconsuls. The number of fasces-bearing lictor's helped symbolize the importance of the officials. During World War II Mussolini used the fasces as a symbol of absolute power in his tyrannical fascist government.

Even still today the fasces is a symbol of power; there are fasces on the walls of the US House of Representatives and on the dime. During the late twelve-hundreds the Old French word "fagot" meaning bundle of sticks such as the one surrounding a fasces came to be. During the seventeen-hundreds the British added a "g" and derived the word "faggot", also meaning bundle of sticks or wood. During this time a faggot was first used as slang meaning an unqualified soldier that was added to fill ranks in a military regiment. These soldiers were positioned around the perimeter to protect the more qualified soldiers from attack in the same manner the bundle of sticks protected the axe in a fasces. Later during the same century seniors in the British public schools began referring to a junior who does certain duties for a senior as a faggot.

It is during this time that the first verb is derived in the form of "fag" (e.g. "He would fag me to do his work"). One begins to see the modern origin of the current slang use in the nineteenth century when faggot is used as contemptuous term for 'woman', especially an old and unpleasant one. In 1912 faggot is first used in reference to a homosexual male. During the 1980's homosexuality was at the forefront of modern society with the outbreak of the AIDS virus or as it was referred to then as the "Gay Plague". During this time the slang word faggot or the shortened version fag started to become even more widely used in reference to a homosexual male.

During the mid nineties the word faggot again takes on a new meaning or dual meaning. Not only in reference to a homosexual male but anyone you dislike. Instead of nerd or geek, faggot is more commonly used as a hate-filled word intended to hurt the recipient. Slang language is almost a language in itself using common words in ways that have little or no bearing on their actual meanings. Throughout long periods of time words can take-on many different forms as in this case. Derived from a Latin word that invoked power and authority, faggot is now a word of hatred and sexual deviance.