[Vwoolf] FW: Etymology of Term Used in A Room of One's Own

[Stuart N. Clarke]

My French isn’t good enough to understand fully their uses of the term, but Larousse online merely suggests that a “fagot” is a bundle of sticks for kindling, while the metaphorical use of the verb is to dress without taste: “regarde comme elle fagote ses enfants”.  I wonder if it is ever applied to men.

Cf. “Orlando” (Hogarth, 1928), p. 40: “Was that figure of fun at the end of the table with her hair rigged up like a Maypole (comme une grande perche mal fagotée) really the Queen?”

The translation was supplied by Vita (at Virginia’s request) in her letter of 26 April 1928.

(I would be prepared to go to the stake that VW would not have comprehended faggot as meaning “A (male) homosexual. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.).”  On the other hand, she would be much more likely to have known (or at least heard of) the plural use as “a sort of cake, roll, or ball,..made of chopped liver and lights, mixed with gravy, and wrapped in pieces of pig's caul.”  I wonder how many people in N. America have heard of “faggots” used thus.)

Stuart


From: Elisa Sparks 
Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2012 11:51 PM
To: VWOOLF at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
Subject: [Vwoolf] FW: Etymology of Term Used in A Room of One's Own

Maybe everyone else already knows this, but I thought this post from an assiduous undergraduate might add a small nugget to our pile of knowledge about Room.

 

Dr. Sparks,

I remembered you wondered if Woolf might have known about the slang version of the term "faggot" when writing about the professor in A Room of One's Own. I checked the OED, and the etymology is intriguing. The term was used since the 16th century as "a term of abuse or contempt applied to a woman," and 1914 is the earliest recording of the term being used as slang for homosexual. Also, examples for "faggot" as a pejorative term used toward a woman include James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence. I think that Woolf was aware of both of the meanings and applied them to create a double insult.

 

I hope you find this as interesting as I did.

 

Best,

Justin Holliday



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