<P> The Yiddish word faygele, lit . "little bird", has been claimed by some to be related to the American usage . The similarity between the two words makes it possible that it might at least have had a reinforcing effect . </P> <P> There is an urban legend, called an "oft - reprinted assertion" by Douglas Harper, that the modern slang meaning developed from the standard meaning of faggot as "bundle of sticks for burning" with regard to burning at the stake . This is unsubstantiated; the emergence of the slang term in 20th - century American English is unrelated to historical death penalties for homosexuality . </P> <P> Originally confined to the United States, the use of the words fag and faggot as epithets for gay men has spread elsewhere in the English - speaking world, but the extent to which they are used in this sense has varied outside the context of imported US popular culture . In the UK and some other countries, the words queer, homo, and poof are much more common as pejorative terms for gay men . The word faggot in the UK typically refers to a kind of meatball, while fag is most commonly used as a slang term for "cigarette". </P> <P> The terms fag / fagging, have been widely used for a practice of younger pupils acting as personal servants to the most senior boys for well over a hundred years in England, in the public school system of education . </P>

Where did the term dire straits come from