They smoke fags in England, I still remember the first time someone asked me if I could spare a fag
Fag may refer to:
What some words might mean most often completely depends on the context of their use in conversing; ie: a "faggot" can also mean a bundle of sticks/kindling tied together as firewood..
Gee, you sure showed me. How did you get to be so clever? Harvard Law? Faggot.
The intended meaning here is quite clear, and has absolutely nothing to do with firewood, and everything to do with a bigoted gay slur that is calling
@BostonBurns a homosexual, as if that's some kind of "bad" thing, instead of the author being a grown assed adult who's able to understand and accept that people all over the world find
other consenting adults to love in myriad ways, including different or same genders, races/colors, and "May/December" romance ages.
A "dyke" can mean a dam, but that depends on the context; are we talking about a dyke/dam/levee that's burst and flooding/overflowing from flooding, or are we talking about a person?
The fact that some of you will contort yourselves like children playing the "Twister" game to obfuscate the obvious, knowing full well what you are doing* and that your attempted distractions, questions and obtuse insistence that you "don't know or really want to understand" are simply showing your level of appalling and unfathomable indifference to the fact that you are intentionally hurting others solely for the sake of causing another human being pain.
There are many slurs that most Americans know little of, if at all, including one that if said to an aboriginal Australian or someone from India would most likely get the user knocked so hard their clothes would be back in style by the time they stopped spinning on the ground.
India and South Africa also share a slur with the same hateful meaning, and speaking it in those areas is akin (or worse) than the "N" word used in North America, the UK and other places where English is the main spoken language.
The point is that there are words when used in context that is bigoted or racially charged that are never acceptable under any circumstances.
IDGAF about flame wars, I participated in more than my share during the mid 90's on Usenet (=^.^= MEOW!), but when people start throwing out bigoted/racial slurs as their "go to" MO, they've just lost the game, permanently, and showed everyone exactly who they are, the first time. (ode to Maya Angelou).
*Please know that I'm not referencing you in this comment,
@knockout , I understand you were just providing examples on the variants of the root word.