shortened version of the insult faggot. Highly problematic and divisive, its usage should be exercised with extreme caution and shouldn’t be used by non-Queer people to describe Queer people. Some Queer people have embraced the word and reclaimed it to some success, using it in pro-Queer propaganda, events, etc.

Fag became a trivial, widely-used insult in general parlance that didn’t necessarily meant to imply a person was Queer, which again became highly problematic.

In the United Kingdom, however, a fag is chiefly used to describe a cigarette.