fag

Etymology 1

Probably from fag end (“remnant”), from Middle English fagge (“flap”).

noun

1. (US, technical) In textile inspections, a rough or coarse defect in the woven fabric.
2. (UK, Ireland, Australia, colloquial, dated in US and Canada) A cigarette.
   He′d Phase Out Fag Industry Los Angeles (UPI) - A UCLA professor has called for the phasing out of the cigarette industry by converting tobacco acres to other crops. January 25 1968, The Bulletin, Oregon
   Oh, rent a flat above a shop / And cut your hair and get a job / And smoke some fags and play some pool / Pretend you never went to school 1995, Pulp (lyrics and music), “Common People”, in Different Class
   All of them, like my mother, were heavy smokers, and after warming themselves by the fire, they would sit on the sofa and smoke, lobbing their wet fag ends into the fire. 2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Alfred A. Knopf, section 15
   So I started off by asking the shearers if they minded if I took a belly off while they were having a fag. Then after a while they were asking me. They′d say, ‘Do yer wanta take over fer a bit while I have a fag?’ And then I got better and I′d finish the sheep and they′d say ‘Christ, I haven′t finished me bloody fag yet, yer may as well shear anotherie.’ 2011, Bill Marsh, Great Australian Shearing Stories, unnumbered page
3. (UK, obsolete, colloquial) The worst part or end of a thing.
   Fag, s. the worst part or end of anything. 1788, William Perry, editor, The Royal standard English dictionary

Etymology 2

Akin to flag (“droop, tire”). Compare Dutch vaak (“sleepiness”).

noun

1. (Britain, dated, colloquial) A chore: an arduous and tiresome task.
2. (Britain, education, archaic, colloquial) A younger student acting as a servant for senior students.
   I had the character at ſchool of being the very beſt fag that ever came into it. 1791, Richard Cumberland, The Observer, volume 4, page 67
   A gang of fags was mobbing about by the notice-boards. They fell silent as he approached. He patted one of them on the head. ‘Pretty children,’ he sighed, digging into his waistcoat pocket and pulling out a handful of change. ‘Tonight you shall eat.’ Scattering the coins at their feet, he moved on. 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, page 18

verb

1. (transitive, colloquial, used mainly in passive form) To make exhausted, tired out.
2. (intransitive, colloquial) To droop; to tire.
   a. 1829, G. Mackenzie, Lives, quoted in 1829, "Fag", entry in The London Encyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary, Volume 9, page 12, Creighton with-held his force 'till the Italian began to fag, and then brought him to the ground.
3. (intransitive, Britain, education, archaic, colloquial) For a younger student to act as a servant for senior students in many British boarding schools.
4. (transitive, Britain, education, archaic, colloquial) To have (a younger student) act as a servant in this way.
   It is everywhere observed that a liberated slave is apt to make a merciless master, and that boys who have been cruelly fagged at school are cruel faggers. 1887, Francis Bacon, Richard Whately, Essays, page 63
5. (intransitive, Britain, archaic) To work hard, especially on menial chores.
   This state of things should have been to me a paradise of peace, accustomed as I was to a life of ceaseless reprimand and thankless fagging; but, in fact, my racked nerves were now in such a state that no calm could soothe, and no pleasure excite them agreeably. 1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 1, in Jane Eyre, HTML edition

Etymology 3

Clipping of faggot.

noun

1. (chiefly US, Canada, vulgar, usually offensive, sometimes endearing) A homosexual man, especially (usually derogatory) an effeminate or unusual one.
   1921 John Lind, The Female Impersonators (Historical Documentation of American Slang v. 1, A-G, edited by Jonathan E. Lighter (New York: Random House, 1994) page 716. Androgynes known as “fairies,” “fags,” or “brownies.”
   In schizophrenics, however, the homosexual outlet is sooner or later ... ideas that strangers call them "cs," "fairy," "woman," "fag," " fruit," etc.). ... 1926, American Neurological Association, New York Neurological Association et al., Journal of nervous and mental disease, volume 94, page 467
   When they pick out a set of clubs for him to rent, he is so indifferent and silent the freckled kid in charge stares at him as if he's a moron. The thought flits through his brain that Eccles is known as a fag and he has become the new pet. 1960, John Updike, 'Rabbit, Run', page 111
   A couple of days later, Trisha tells Madelyn there is a rumor going around that she's a fag. 2006, Lynn Mickelsen, Confusion Turned to Chaos
   ... what appeared to be overt appeals to anti-gay sentiment. When House Majority Whip Dick Armey referred to fellow Congressman Barney Frank as "Barney Fag" in 1995, he suffered a barage of negative publicity that prompted him to explain his choice of words as a slip of the tongue. 2008, Paul Ryan Brewer, Value war: public opinion and the politics of gay rights, page 60
2. (US, vulgar, offensive) An annoying person.
   Why did you do that, you fag?