Editing Feck

{{Short description|Word with several meanings}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
"'''Feck'''" (occasionally spelled "'''fek'''" or "'''feic'''") is a word that has several [[vernacular]] meanings and variations in [[Hiberno-English|Irish English]], [[Scots language|Scots]], and [[Middle English]].

==Irish English==
* The most popular and widespread modern use of the term is as a slang [[Profanity|expletive]] in Irish English, employed as a [[Minced oath|less serious alternative]] to the expletive "[[fuck]]" to express disbelief, surprise, pain, anger, or contempt. It notably lacks the sexual connotations that "fuck" has.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/feck?q=feck |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021082245/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/feck?q=feck |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 October 2013 |title=feck – definition of feck in English from the Oxford dictionary |publisher=Oxforddictionaries.com |access-date=2015-06-25}}</ref>
* It is also used as Irish slang meaning "throw" (e.g. "he fecked the remote control across the table at me".)
* It has also been used as a verb meaning "to steal" (e.g. "they had fecked cash out of the rector's room")<ref>[[A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man|''Portrait of the Artist'']], [[James Joyce]], (1964) p. 40</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0voNAAAAQAAJ&q=feck%20slang&pg=PA310 |title=The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang – Eric Partridge |isbn=9780710077615 |access-date=2015-06-25|last1=Partridge |first1=Eric |year=1973 |publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul }}</ref> or to discover a safe method of robbery or cheating.<ref>Eric Partridge ''A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English''. London: Bibliophile Books, 1982; p. 269</ref>

==Scots and Late Middle English==
"Feck" is a form of {{lang|sco|effeck}}, which is in turn the Scots cognate of the modern English word [[wikt:en:Effect|effect]]. However, this Scots noun has additional significance:
# Efficacy; force; value; [[Return on investment|return]]
# Amount; quantity (or a large amount/quantity)
# The greater or larger part (when used with a [[Article (grammar)|definite article]])

From the first sense can be derived "[[wikt:feckless|feckless]]", meaning witless, weak, or ineffective. "Feckless" remains a part of [[Modern English]] and [[Scottish English]], and appears in a number of Scottish [[adage]]s:

:"Feckless folk are aye fain o ane anither."

:"Feckless fools should keep canny tongues."

In his 1881 short story ''[[Thrawn Janet]]'', [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] invokes the second sense of "feck" as cited above:

:"He had a feck o' books wi' him—mair than had ever been seen before in a' that presbytery..."

[[Robert Burns]] uses the third sense of "feck" in the final [[stanza]] of his 1792 poem "Kellyburn Braes":

:I hae been a Devil the feck o' my life,
:Hey, and the rue grows bonie wi' thyme;
:"But ne'er was in hell till I met wi' a wife,"
:And the thyme it is wither'd, and rue is in prime

==In the media==
The [[Channel 4]] sitcom ''[[Father Ted]]'' (1995{{endash}}1998) helped to popularise the use of "feck" outside of Ireland (particularly in the UK, where Channel 4 is based) through liberal use of the word by alcoholic priest Father Jack.<ref name="Ted">{{cite web|url=http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/itc/itc_publications/complaints_reports/programme_complaints/show_complaint.asp-prog_complaint_id=78.html |title=Programme Complaints & Interventions Report |publisher=Ofcom.org.uk |access-date=2015-06-25}}</ref>

In a 1998 interview on [[Nickelodeon (British and Irish TV channel)|Nickelodeon]], an appearance by the teenage Irish girl group [[B*Witched]] prompted a viewer complaint alleging that one of its members had said "fuck off" on air. Nickelodeon maintained that the singer had in fact said "feck off", which they described as "a phrase made popular by the Channel 4 sitcom ''Father Ted''", but the phrase was still found to be in breach of the ITC Programme Code and the complaint was thus upheld.<ref name="Ted" />

In 2004, clothing retailer [[French Connection (clothing)|French Connection UK]] (best known for its infamous "FCUK" T-shirt) won a legal injunction in [[Dublin]] that barred a local business from printing and selling a T-shirt marked "FCEK: The Irish Connection".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/article393415.ece|title=Irish retail minnow forced to FCEK off|website=[[The Sunday Times]]|date=21 November 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090502173838/http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/article393415.ece|access-date=5 April 2021|archive-date=2 May 2009}}</ref>

In 2008, the Irish cider brand [[Magners]] received complaints relating to an advert it had posted around the UK in which a man tells bees to "feck off", with members of the public concerned that young children could be badly influenced by it. Magners claimed that the "feck off" mention in the advert was a "mild rebuff" to the bees rather than an expletive. The [[Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)|Advertising Standards Authority]] ruled that the poster was suitable for display.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/what-feck-ad-gets-all-clear-2513309|title=What the feck! Ad gets the all clear|website=[[The Scotsman]]|date=9 December 2008|access-date=5 April 2021}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Wiktionary|feck}}
{{Wiktionary|feckless}}
* [[Minced oath]]
* [[Cognate]]
* [[False cognate]]
* [[Hiberno-English#Vocabulary|Hiberno-English – Turns of phrase]]
* [[Profanity]]
* [[Vulgarism]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* Walker, Colin S. K. ''Scottish Proverbs''. [[Edinburgh]]: Birlinn Limited, 1996. {{ISBN|1-874744-30-0}}
* ''Webster's College Dictionary''. New York City: [[Random House]], 1996. {{ISBN|0-679-43886-6}}
* ''Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary''. [[Springfield, Massachusetts]]: [[Merriam Webster|G. & C. Merriam Company Co.]], 1913.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071205102451/http://www.irishslang.net/ Irish Slang]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050521001903/http://www.englishirishdictionary.com/ Irish Dictionary Online]

[[Category:Father Ted]]
[[Category:English profanity]]
[[Category:Scots language]]
[[Category:Scottish English]]
[[Category:Interjections]]
[[Category:Irish slang]]
[[Category:English words]]