I was about to sleep when I suddenly recalled Mr. Garrison, from South Park, saying "fag". It was pretty funny, his articulation that is, and because other characters were censored upon uttering that word. And now, I've been wondering about the coinage of the word fag. In a dictionary (the built-in Oxford Mac dictionary)
fag 2 |føg| |fag|
noun informal chiefly offensive
a male homosexual. See usage at queer .
DERIVATIVES
faggy adjective
ORIGIN 1920s: short for faggot .
faggot |ˈfagət| |ˌføgət| |ˌfagət|
noun
1 informal chiefly offensive a male homosexual. See usage at queer .
2 British spelling of fagot .
DERIVATIVES
faggoty |ˌføgədi| adjective
ORIGIN early 20th cent.: perhaps from the obsolete sense of fagot ‘contemptible woman.’
Offensive is a relatively mild adjective, used to describe anyone or anything that is unpleasant or disagreeable
I was thinking about why this word ever came about. I mean, I don't have anything against homosexuals or anything. I certainly am not someone who advocates gay rights. And I am absolutely not gay. I'm just annoyed at the fact that the word fag is defined to be "offensive". There is no such word to describe "offensive" males and females, too. I think that it is not fair to have such a word. It is the coinage of these kinds of words that I find detestable. (Geez, I learned something from the dictionary).
People may say that words are empty and that their meaning lies in the interpretation, but having those kinds of words greatly demoralizes those who get hit by it. Another issue here is the "to not get hit by a word". Because social norms usually dictate people to behave in an accepted way, this issue makes some people uncomfortable, which leads to having people who cannot express themselves properly. In a sense, it makes some people become whom they are not. That is something that we do not want do we? I don't want to see any more pretenders. There are lots, by the way. Most of them are sitting in power. Like Glo.. Whatever. As a final note, although some people use these "offensive" kinds of words, their existence is somewhat detrimental to society. I think that the coinage of words deserves to have some sort of responsibility.
