"There are countless horrible things happening all over the world and horrible people prospering, but we must never allow them to disturb our equanimity or deflect us from our sacred duty to sabotage and annoy them whenever possible." -Auberon Waugh
Thing is, our slang word for gay is not derived from fasces. It comes from "fagele" a Yiddish word meaning "little bird" and also slang for gay. And thus is unique to the US.
In other parts of the Anglosphere the word still means bundle of sticks, or cigarette, or as in this case, a meatball.
One of my favorites is "gunsel," meaning little goose and also gay. But most people today think it means hired gun, thanks to Dashiell Hammet slipping into The Maltese Falcon to describe Wilmer, Casper Gutman's bodyguard and... uh, companion.
Hammet was counting on his editor not knowing the word's meaning and got it through. It made it into the Bogart film and then into general usage, but in the false meaning.
Thing is, our slang word for gay is not derived from fasces. It comes from "fagele" a Yiddish word meaning "little bird" and also slang for gay. And thus is unique to the US.
ReplyDeleteIn other parts of the Anglosphere the word still means bundle of sticks, or cigarette, or as in this case, a meatball.
some of the best slang come from Yiddish
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorites is "gunsel," meaning little goose and also gay. But most people today think it means hired gun, thanks to Dashiell Hammet slipping into The Maltese Falcon to describe Wilmer, Casper Gutman's bodyguard and... uh, companion.
DeleteHammet was counting on his editor not knowing the word's meaning and got it through. It made it into the Bogart film and then into general usage, but in the false meaning.