There was once a time when faggots weren't poofters and poofters weren't gay.

Huh? Welcome to Australia, 1900. When a faggot was a bundle of sticks and a poof was a stout, free'standing cushion to rest feet on and to be gay was to be joyous, not "flamboyant" as the media now likes to euphemise.

So how did these innocent words morph into insults and are they insults still? The 'fag' story goes like this: once upon a time, which frighteningly was not so long ago, it was considered evil for men to be attracted to fellow men. So vigilante groups would hold witch hunts where homosexuals were sought, tied to posts and burned alive. The fuel to light these fires were the aforementioned bundles of sticks called faggots and this term was then extended to include the men they helped to kill. Not the nicest of fairytales is it?

The derogatory term, 'poof', first came into use in 1817 and 'poofter' entered Aussie slang at the beginning of the 20th century. However, in an attempt to reclaim the names that condemn, like 'wogs' before them, homosexual men in the 21st century can be heard calling each other 'silly old poofs' and wearing the label proudly. Fowler's Modern English Usage says that 'gay' was a self'ascribed term too. When it first came to mean homosexual in 1935, the gay community "wanted the public at large to use it too", instead of the derogatory alternatives.

Now, gay hardly means homosexual at all. "Ugh, that's so gay" is more or less a translation of "that's pretty pathetic" and even this meaning is changing. With chick mags labelling 'fag hags' as hip and 'gay' (yes, all things categorised gay ' lesbianism, fashion, token friends) as in vogue, the connotations of the word will adapt further. But for now, 'gay' is slowly returning to its asexual state even if it's in a new, not so happy form.

So what's left to offend us? 'Fuck'? It's lost shock value and no one really gives a fuck about people's sensibilities when saying it any more. 'Cunt'? Well this one still draws a gasp from a lot of women and maybe a bit of a 'bitch'slap' if used in reference to one present. But hang on, The Macquarie Dictionary gives one definition of 'cunt' as "sexual intercourse". What the fuck? How is it that so many offensive words just end up meaning the same thing?

Like 'bugger', for instance. Lazy bugger, little fucker and stupid cunt all mean the same thing now. Just an affectionate assessment of a friend really, if said with list or a gentle half'smile.

So what's next? In the 90s we were singing, "I'm a bitch, I'm a lover", in the noughties, it's "Fuck you, I don't want you back". Who knows, maybe soon, we'll be naming our kids Cunt, instead of that lovely girl's name of old, Gay. How words change.