Alrite, fella. Sorry to hear about your misbehaving internets.
I've read stuff containing references to 'fags' in English all-boys schools who were basically younger servants to prefects, which obviously then portended to the smuggling of the cawk - but I don't think the connection was ever extended to common use.
I think it was Hemingway or Steinbeck or Faulkner who popularized it.
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