Faggot (unit)

A faggot, in the meaning of "bundle", is an archaic English unit applied to bundles of certain items. Alternate spellings in Early Modern English include fagate, faget, fagett, faggott, fagot, fagatt, fagott, ffagott, and faggat.

Sometimes called a short faggot, a faggot of sticks equals a bundle of wood sticks or billets that is three feet (0.914 meters) in length and two feet (0.609 meters) in circumference. The measurement was standardized in ordinances by 1474. A small short faggot was also called a nicket. A brush-faggot (sometimes shortened to brush) was a bundle of similar size made of brushwood.

A long faggot of sticks equals a bundle larger than three feet long. In a book on slang used at Winchester College, fire-dogs were fire-baskets which could hold long faggots, and half-faggots were smaller baskets which could only hold a short faggot, and were later converted for use with coal. A long faggot was also called a kidd faggot. A fascine (or bavin) is a type of long faggot which is approximately 13 to 20 feet long and 8 to 9 inches in diameter and used to maintain earthworks such as trenches.

A faggot was also a unit of weight used to measure iron or steel rods or bars totaling 120 pounds (54.43 kilograms).