Feck
Here at Yorkshire Pudding, I have occasionally stopped to consider particular words. This evening I am looking at a word that is used quite commonly over in The Republic of Ireland - mostly as a verb but sometimes as a noun or adjective. That word is "feck". Of course it sounds rather like "fuck" which is widely thought of as the most impolite word in the English language and the source of much tut-tutting. But "feck" is different from "fuck". It's naughty but generally acceptable. It has a certain comical quality The word owes much to the Gaelic languages of both Ireland and Scotland. In Scots Gaelic, it was originally connected with effectiveness and in that sense is linked with the term "feckless" which is used to describe people who are ineffective or lazy and conduct themselves in a careless, unfocused manner. My late brother Paul lived in Ireland for most of his adult life and I recall a scene in a busy Dublin pub when ...