So, the English language is just great, isn’t it.  V sent me a message from work and I replied.  I was explaining about going for a fag.  The next thing I know is that I get a message from our internal filter/firewall system to tell me that the message had been purged.

It says that it had purged it because of a keyword in the “sexual discrimination” part.  I.e. the word fag.  So, obviously we have an American system in place as it’s an American meaning for the word.  It angers me that a perfectly innocent word that we have used in the UK for a very long time to mean a) a cigarette; b) a tiring chore; c) a kind of slave at public school has to have this other meaning created by people who can’t even speak English properly (sorry N, just a quick rant is all).

And, when I look it up on-line, I find that this term for cigarette comes from fag end – which in turn comes from the obsolete word “fag” meaning a remnant.

So, there you go.  I suspect that the term fag in UK English has been around a damn sight longer that the American term for gay person – so why the hell do they think it’s right to have it in a filter as an automatic thing.  Still, when they take over the world I guess we’ll all have to speak American!