That’s fascinating.

I confess: I’m a fajitaist.

It’s related to a word for a bundle of sticks, which is also a homophobic slur.

It’s a bit more complicated. Both come from related albeit different Latin words. TL;DR:

• Fascism - etymologically “bundleism”
• Fajitas - “little strips”

Fascism

From Latin ⟨fascis⟩ /ˈfaskis/ “bundle, package, parcel”. Usually of thin things, like rods. The plural ⟨fasces⟩ was specifically used to refer to a specific bundle used by magistrates.

In Late Latin times it likely got a more regular form like *fascius, inherited by Italian as ⟨fascio⟩ /'faʃʃo/ “bundle, bunch”. Then you got fascists using it to refer to their own ranks, so you got “fascista” and “fascismo”.

Spanish inherited Latin ⟨fascis⟩ as ⟨haz⟩ /aθ/~/as/ “bundle, beam”. Note that /f/→/h/→Ø is common in Spanish.

Fajitas

Diminutive plural of ⟨faja⟩ “strip, ribbon”. Ultimately from Latin ⟨fascia⟩ /'faskia/ “strip, ribbon, band”.

⟨Fascia⟩ is clearly related to ⟨fascis⟩ but not quite the same word: ⟨fascia⟩ refers to a single thin object, while ⟨fascis⟩ is a bit of a collective term for the whole bundle.

The direct Spanish descendant of ⟨fascia⟩ is ⟨haza⟩ /aθa/~/asa/, that refers to a strip of land. The form ⟨faja⟩ is likely a side-borrowing from another nearby Romance language; Wiktionary says that it’s from Aragonese ⟨faxa⟩ /faʃa/, it seems sensible.

The word also pops up in Italian as ⟨fascia⟩ /faʃ.ʃa/ “strip, band”.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

I saw this tweet the other day, and it was one of those things that seems jarring and surprising at first, but actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

1921, from Italian partito nazionale fascista, the anti-communist political movement organized 1919 under Benito Mussolini (1883-1945); from Italian fascio “group, association,” literally “bundle,” from Latin fasces (see fasces).

Fasci “groups of men organized for political purposes” had been a feature of Sicily since c. 1895, and the 20c.

totalitarian sense probably came directly from this but was influenced by the historical Roman fasces, which became the party symbol.

), from Proto-Italic *faski- “bundle,” perhaps from PIE *bhasko- “band, bundle” (source also of Middle Irish basc “neckband,” Welsh baich “load, burden,” perhaps also Old English bæst “inner bark of the linden tree”).

Hence in Latin it also meant, figuratively, “high office, supreme power.”

The original article contains 319 words, the summary contains 145 words. Saved 55%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

and a word that might be automatically filtered out on this site