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from the How-much-did-folks-at-Stonehenge-smoke? dept.
In a sign that maybe there is hope for the survival of the human race, The Guardian reports that the number of cigarette smokers in the UK has dropped to less than 17%, the lowest number in half a century.
In 1974, over 50% of men in Britain were smokers; that had fallen to just 19.1% in England in 2015. Similarly, just over 40% of women smoked back then; last year it was only 14.9%.
There are now just 7.2 million adults in England who smoke. They are far outnumbered by 14.6 million ex-smokers. It is the first time that under 17% of the population are smokers and is down from the 19.3% seen as recently as 2012.
Interestingly the success rate for people trying to quit has jumped from 13.6% to around 20%.
Some of this may reflect the price of smokes - which look to be between £8 and £10 ($13 US) for a pack of twenty. (Canadian prices are sitting around $9-10 CDN)
And, in the interest of what passes for "balance" these days, there are groups that will dispute the health risks of smoking tobacco.
Disclaimer: Smoked for twenty+ years, mostly plain Camels. Yummmm..... Quit cold turkey.
(Score: 2) by Username on Tuesday September 20 2016, @05:12PM
I believe that is the correct term. Stop trying to PC up everything.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday September 20 2016, @05:36PM
Online Etymology Dictionary: [etymonline.com]
faggot (n.1)
late 13c., "bundle of twigs bound up," also fagald, faggald, from Old French fagot "bundle of sticks" (13c.), of uncertain origin, probably from Italian faggotto "bundle of sticks," diminutive of Vulgar Latin *facus, from Latin fascis "bundle of wood" (see fasces).
Especially used for burning heretics (emblematic of this from 1550s), so that phrase fire and faggot was used to indicate "punishment of a heretic." Heretics who recanted were required to wear an embroidered figure of a faggot on the sleeve as an emblem and reminder of what they deserved.
faggot (n.2)
"male homosexual," 1914, American English slang, probably from earlier contemptuous term for "woman" (1590s), especially an old and unpleasant one, in reference to faggot (n.1) "bundle of sticks," as something awkward that has to be carried (compare baggage "worthless woman," 1590s). It may also be reinforced by Yiddish faygele "homosexual" (n.), literally "little bird." It also may have roots in British public school slang noun fag "a junior who does certain duties for a senior" (1785), with suggestions of "catamite," from fag (v.). This also spun off a verb (see fag (v.2).
Other obsolete British senses of faggot were "man hired into military service merely to fill out the ranks at muster" (1700) and "vote manufactured for party purposes" (1817).
The explanation that male homosexuals were called faggots because they were burned at the stake as punishment is an etymological urban legend. Burning sometimes was a punishment meted out to homosexuals in Christian Europe (on the suggestion of the Biblical fate of Sodom and Gomorrah), but in England, where parliament had made homosexuality a capital offense in 1533, hanging was the method prescribed. Use of faggot in connection with public executions had long been obscure English historical trivia by the time the word began to be used for "male homosexual" in 20th century American slang, whereas the contemptuous slang word for "woman" (in common with the other possible sources or influences listed here) was in active use early 20c., by D.H. Lawrence and James Joyce, among others.
Ok, so that conspicuously does not include anything about cigarettes. Looking further [etymonline.com]:
fag (n.1)
British slang for "cigarette" (originally, especially, the butt of a smoked cigarette), 1888, probably from fag "loose piece, last remnant of cloth" (late 14c., as in fag-end "extreme end, loose piece," 1610s), which perhaps is related to fag (v.), which could make it a variant of flag (v.).
From the same page, fag (v.):
fag (v.1)
"to droop, decline in strength, become weary" (intransitive), 1520s, of uncertain origin; OED is content with the "common view" that it is an alteration of flag (v.) in its sense of "droop, go limp." Transitive sense of "to make (someone or something) fatigued, tire by labor" is first attested 1826. Related: Fagged; fagging.
Following the link to flag (v.):
flag (v.1)
1540s, "flap about loosely," probably a later variant of Middle English flakken, flacken "to flap, flutter" (late 14c.), which probably is from Old Norse flaka "to flicker, flutter, hang losse," perhaps imitative of something flapping lazily in the wind. Sense of "go limp, droop, become languid" is first recorded 1610s. Related: Flagged; flagging.
And now we know the rest of the story. Bundle of sticks used for burning witches != flapping piece of cloth, so go ahead and bring it back.
(And what else is wood used for? Burning more witches!)
(Score: 2) by Username on Tuesday September 20 2016, @06:12PM
How is a cigarette not a stick?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday September 20 2016, @06:56PM
The point is, etymologically speaking, that you don't burn witches with them. Thus the bundle of sticks meaning for faggot doesn't apply. Instead, the flappy piece of cloth sense applies which has a different etymology. After all, everybody knows that salvaging cigarettes yields cloth [fallout4.wiki], not wood!
The bundle of sticks and homosexual meanings come from the Romance languages (possibly) by way of (vulgar) Latin fascis > Italian faggotto > Old French fagot. First, a bundle of sticks, then we can see it evolve to come to symbolize a heretic and later morph into usage #2, an unpleasant old woman (burn the witch!). At some point, this evolves to refer to a homosexual man as well. The "junior who does certain duties for a senior" meaning and "man hired into military service merely to fill out the ranks at muster" meaning I take as interesting scenery along the way.
The problem is that I'm not readily seeing how Norse flaka > Middle English flakken, which is where they're saying the cigarette meaning of fag came from (originally just the cigarette butt), has anything to do with bundles of sticks.
tl;dr Sticks are made from wood, and you use wood to burn witches. Cigarettes are made from cloth and tobacco, and you can't use them to burn witches. (Well, I suppose you could… or maybe use a lit fag to ignite gasoline-soaked faggots, burning the witch. But you don't burn homosexuals, only witches. Faggots get the noose instead.)
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday September 20 2016, @07:25PM
Cigarettes are made from cloth and tobacco
Should also clarify rolling paper [wikipedia.org]:
Cigarette paper is made from thin and lightweight "rag fibers" (nonwood plant fibers) such as flax, hemp, sisal, rice straw, and esparto.
(Score: 2) by MrNemesis on Tuesday September 20 2016, @07:42PM
Before cigarettes were sold in boxes/packs here, they were sold in cricular bundles wrapped in string or paper, later in tins. These resembled almost exactly bundles of firewood/sticks, or fascines which descend from the same root.
https://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/html/images/Peru-Trip-13/cigar_bundle.jpg [cgarsltd.co.uk] (cigars only I'm afraid, couldn't find one of actual fags)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascine [wikipedia.org]
From the TVTropes definition linked below:
The "British English" sections of some fantabulous online resources are also helpful for anyone feeling like reading more, or understanding how to use the term "wanker" correctly:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/BritishEnglish [tvtropes.org]
http://effingpot.com/chapters/ [effingpot.com]
http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/f.htm [peevish.co.uk]
(Full-time ex-smoker and part-time reader of etymology dictionaries here so I'm rather fond of the term. I've never heard the "loose piece of cloth" thing before and suspect it's incorrect)
"To paraphrase Nietzsche, I have looked into the abyss and been sick in it."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @12:46AM
So cigarette smokers are fascists, then.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday September 21 2016, @03:13PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves