Early Printed Use
The word with reference to homosexuality was used as early as in the 1914 Jackson and Hellyer A Vocabulary of Criminal Slang, with Some Examples of Common Usages which listed the following example under the word, drag:
- "All the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight."
The word was also used by a character in Claude McKay’s 1928 novel Home to Harlem, indicating that it was used during the Harlem Renaissance. Specifically, one character says that he cannot understand:
- "a bulldyking woman and a faggoty man"
Read more about this topic: Faggot (slang)
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or printed:
“The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I wish I had a man and not a dishrag printed over with big words like ‘constitutional rights’ and ‘progress’!”
—Christina Stead (1902–1983)