Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a male homosexual; occas. as adj.

1967		E.M. Cohen $250,000 202: ‘He’s a feigele,’ Sholom sneered.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 114: Fagela An effeminate male.
1967		A. Rinzler N.Y. Spy 372: ‘Straightniks’ (also known as normals) in New York City are always trying to assimilate, to be a little colored, Jewish, gay, etc. But in-Madison-Avenue term for gay kid is fagele (‘little bird’ in Yiddish), sound-alike to the abusive ‘fag,’ ‘faggot,’ which terms come from the medieval use of sticks of wood to burn heretics, Jews, homosexuals.
1971		J. Roc Winter Blood 204: I want you to know, I want you to understand, Billy is not a feigele, he is a man. But that day he is got there a dress.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 128: You too are a fegala.
1989		Balka & Rose Twice Blessed 12: [heading] Confessions of a ‘Feygele-Booichik’.
1995		R. Campbell Wizard of La-La Land (1999) 10: Kropotnik was sixteen and already a notorious fageleh in the neighborhood.
1999		Gaymart.com Queer Sl. in the Gay 90s 🌐 Feigele – A Yiddish term for gay that is derived from the word bird.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hollywood Fuck Pad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 238: Ex-caped ex-con with felonious faigelah brother.
2006		S.L. Beeber Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s 140: Arnold Horshack, a parody of an ineffectual Eastern European Jew who borders on a feygele .
2011		D. Hunt Trucker and Pup 241: She would have to realise her only son was gay, a feygele, and was in love with the sweetest, kindest little bloke.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 152: [S]ome faigelah deputy browning guys in Ferndell Park.