Here's an interesting piece from ESPN's TrueHoop blog where Joakim Noah was discussing letting loose with a word rhyming with maggot towards an abusive fan over the weekend. Kobe's pocket was lightened earlier this season when he unleashed a dual f-bomb (the classic one followed by the maggot one) at a referee after a bad call.
Arnovitz: How homophobic is an NBA locker room?
Noah: Not at all.
Arnovitz: But f----- is tossed around without people even thinking about it?
Noah: Exactly. But a lot less than you probably think.
I don't know what locker rooms of the 2010s are like, but the playgrounds of the early 1970s had the maggot-rhymer used as an all-purpose put-down. Back then, we'd be more aware of homophones in English class than homophobia; such people in real-life were a distant theory as far as I knew. The pejorative was oft saved for people either on the un-macho side or just for someone you didn't like.
Thus, Noah may well be right; people use that term without cross-referencing homosexuality, just like a classic f-bomb may have nothing to do with sexual activity in the mind of the speaker.
That being said, it comes from a British term for a cigarette butt. A little more appetizing than a maggot, but not much. People might taught about someone welshing and gypping them without thinking that they are insulting southwestern British and Roma respectively.
Best not to insult at all. Easier said than done.
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