FAGGOT

faggot, a bundle of sticks used for firewood. the word is adapted from the fr. _fagot_, and appears in italian as _fagotto_, the name given to the bassoon (q.v.). "faggot" is frequently used with reference to the burning of heretics, and recanted heretics wore an embroidered faggot on the arm as a symbol of the punishment they had escaped. in the 18th century the word is used of a "dummy" soldier, appearing on the rolls of a regiment. it is this use, coupled with the idea of a bundle of sticks as being capable of subdivision, that appears in the expression "faggot-vote," a vote artificially created by the minute splitting up of property so as to give a bare qualification for the franchise.