A Bundle of Sticks

http://www.homeeducationday.org/images/Twigs%20(2).jpg

Once upon a time, there was a young lady who followed the crowd.  She decided to call one of her classmates a name; not understanding what it meant, only that everyone else was doing it.  What followed was a lesson that perhaps only now she really understands!

OK, so that young lady was me and I got busted because the teacher overheard me!  At the time I was not happy with the punishment but it has stuck like glue and to this day I often share it with others. 

The story is extremely appropriate for my blog because my punishment was to be sent to the dictionary to look up the word which I used.  What was it?  I called another kid a faggot and Mrs. Emde was not happy about it!  She told me straight out that she expected better of me and sent me on my quest to find out what the word really meant.  What did I discover when I finally found the word in the classroom dictionary; any thoughts?  My guess is that you thought of the term that has negative connotations attached to it, but that is not what I found!  A faggot: often referring to a bundle of sticks or twigs especially used for fuel.  Why has this definition stuck with me for all these many years?  Maybe it’s because Mrs. Emde made me write it about a hundred times, or maybe because it was a profound lesson about how our society changes the definition of words from something innocent to something atrocious.

I have searched the net to try to find some sort of evidence regarding the semantics of the word and when it changed in America, but I have not come across anything other than personal thought I am looking for something I can cite, I want references!  According to Wikipedia, across the pond the word fag is used in a slang form to describe a cigarette and faggot is used to this day to describe meatballs!  I could find nothing concrete that talked about when the word jumped across the Atlantic and became associated with homosexual men! I did find an interesting article that I would invite my blog visitors to read at  http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2112/how-did-faggot-get-to-mean-male-homosexual

To end, I just have to say that I was extremely happy today when I shared my story with a friend and she immediately said “Well, duh it means a bundle of sticks!!!”  Hats off to you Becky for having a smarter mouth!