"What is feck?" Topic

Your English, she is confusing.
I learned the word "feckless' the other day and I provoked laughter when I said of someone he was feckfull (full of feck?).
Am I just inept? I would so like to be ept in English but she is difficult.

I think you mean 'what the feck!'

It's also a favourite quote from Father Jack in the TV show 'Father Ted'

Feck is an abnormal anomaly according to a US court.

Our US parent company is embroiled in an IP dispute (God I love US software patent laws) and the Director of development had to stand up in court and read out source code. The code contained the comment "if blah is fecked…", so the court had to decide on a definition of feck.

Oh dear, but then my Italian is restricted to the understanding of Verdi and Puccini librettos :)

Right, according to the OED

The word 'feckless' is derived from northern English dialect – effeck (effect). So it means literally 'effectless'.

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If you're Irish (thanks Dad!) then it's another, more earthier, Anglo-Saxon word with a vowel shift.

link

Father Jack, all you need to watch is the last 5 seconds

don't forget the Fecking Irish Whisky

but Feckless has a slightly different meaning than "One who lacks Feck" as our OED freind has noted.

I personally like Feckful, whick opens all sorts of possibilitles…

Those were feckful times.
Through the fence, between the feckinging flower spaces, I could see them hitting.
I am a sick man . . . I am a feckful man.
It was a dark and feckly night.

-Less words are fun, when the original word dies out but the derivative does not.

Ruth. I am crammed full of Ruth today.

Pat

English is not logical.

Feckless is a word, feckful is not, at lreast not now, it may have been once.

"Feck" on its own is a word used instead of a similar and bleeped word popularised by the TV series "Father Ted" and common in Ireland. I believe "Fluke" is also used in the same way.

I must confess to not being quite as illiterate in English as I sound.
But this language is often beautifully illogical and eccentric and quite delightful to send up.
No other language that I know is as much fun.
Thank you for your replies.

beautifully illogical and eccentric

Oh, so that is why Comb, Bomb and Tomb do not rhyme.

English is what happened when Norman soldiers chatted up Saxon barmaids. It doesn't just borrow from other languages, it lies in wait in dark alleys and conks them over the head and then rifles through their pockets for loose grammar.

Wyatt

Syntax, Wyatt. Loose syntax.

English is not logical.

Feckless is a word, feckful is not

feck.ful … 1 chiefly Scot : efficient, effective 2 chiefly Scot a : sturdy, trusty b : powerful, vigorous -- feckfully …

"Oh, so that is why Comb, Bomb and Tomb do not rhyme"

Yeah, "Hooked on Phonics" never worked for me. :)

"Ruth. I am crammed full of Ruth today."

"Her real name isn't Nancy," said Peggy. "Her name is Ruth, but Uncle Jim said that Amazons were ruthless…"

feck.ful … 1 chiefly Scot : efficient, effective 2 chiefly Scot a : sturdy, trusty b : powerful, vigorous -- feckfully …

Never heard of it, and I live here.

Find me that in an English English dictionary, rather than an American English one.

I suspect it is a compound neologism, or should that be a neologism compound? A quick Google throws up plenty of Answers.com type rubbish, but no authoritative source.

Ahm Scots an ah've nae heered o it

It's a naughty word, used in place of , the newest addition to the Bleep-o-matic!

Useage: "OMG, I have a feck! I have been fecked, and I don't know who did it!
The bed-wetters are fecking everybody!"

Much like Farkle and Frak….

I remember reading somwhere about the etymology of words like feckless, ruthless, disgruntled, etc – there used to be feckful, ruthful, grutled, but no-one uses them any more.

"Feck" is, I believe Irish – hence its use in Father Ted – but it's not just a mispronunciation of the more well-known four-letter word. IIRC, it's fairly mild – to the point where a girl group thought it was appropriate to use on Saturday morning TV (

I checked with a Irish person at work, the frequent use in Father Ted is spot on accurate

so similar to flip or flippin' then.!

pretty much like I use "Flippin Eck Tucker"

as in "flippin eck tucker – he's gawn an' dun it agayne!" presumably?

Nancy? You mean Betty Jo Bialaski?

feck.ful … 1 chiefly Scot : efficient, effective 2 chiefly Scot a : sturdy, trusty b : powerful, vigorous -- feckfully …

Never heard of it, and I live here.

Find me that in an English English dictionary, rather than an American English one.

I suspect it is a compound neologism, or should that be a neologism compound? A quick Google throws up plenty of Answers.com type rubbish, but no authoritative source.

The "Websters Third New International Dictionary" that comes with the "Encyclopedia Britannica."

Like Connard said, find it in British dictionary, not Websters.

You guys are funny. Just because you live somewhere doesn't make you an authority on etymology. I'd trust the staff putting together an "International" dictionary, before some rustic hick from Scotland (or thereabouts), to know what words are derived from "chiefly Scot" root words and meanings….

Just because you live somewhere doesn't make you an authority on etymology. I'd trust the staff putting together an "International" dictionary

The OED is an 'international dictionary'. I'll type this slowly. The. Only. Word. It. Has. Is. Feckless.

Now FFS sake stop pretending to be a better lexicographer than we locals. You lot can't even spell English properly :)

And we haven't spoken it in years, I know….

Of course along side feck is the Irish fork.

In England we ask "Do you have a knife and fork", while Gallowglass will bellow- "Do ya hev a forkin' knife"

Hickish Utahns will say "fark", as in "'Merican Fark"….