Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. homosexual; pertaining to homosexuality.

1933		E. Hemingway letter 8 Apr. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 387: She told me she had heard an incident, some fag story, which proved me conclusively to be very queer indeed.
1947		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 87: There once was a man of Sag Harbor / Who used to go with a fag barber.
1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 234: From the dirty snows of ‘frosty fagtown New York’ as Neal called it.
1953		W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 45: They had gone down to Verdi Square to a fag joint (a bar frequented by homosexuals) and picked up a queer.
1964		L. Hansberry Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window in Three Negro Plays (1969) I ii: So everything goes with him! He just puts on the fag bit to cover what he really is.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 183: Whaddya want? You fag bastard you!
1972		R. Barrett Lovomaniacs (1973) 326: ‘Not until you kiss me, you little bitch,’ he fag-voiced me back.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 283: George Ginger. Sounds like a fag name to me.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 19: A dead building by day but a fag club by night.
2001		in N. Tosches Where Dead Voices Gather (ms.) 206: A lot of guys thought Chauncey was a fag name.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 10: Swinger joints. Schmooze pits. Stewardess crash pads. Fag cribs and bachelorette dumps for kept women.

2. in fig. use, effeminate or stereotyped as such, although also used of objects, i.e. lacking power.

1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Original Scroll) (2007) 304: The car was what Neal called a ‘fag Plymouth,’ it had no pickup and no real power.
1978		(con. 1963) J. Carroll The Basketball Diaries 25: Game or no game, we just don’t dig carrying around those little fag bags with our stuff in them, we just whip off our shirt and pants and we’re out on the court.
1986		J. Ellroy Suicide Hill 214: Duane-o looked more like a priest than the puto with the alligator fag shirt.
1994		J. Wambaugh Finnegan’s Week 264: You ever seen that Honda Shadow eleven hunnerd? It ain’t a fag bike.
2006		D. Winslow Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 118: We get ourselves some fag tracksuits, we run up behind him, and we pop him in the head.