feck meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

feck

noun

/fɛk/

Etymology Borrowed from Scots, aphetic form of effect.

Effect, value; vigor.

some of which have earned a small academic following for their technical feck and for a pathos that was somehow both surreally abstract and CNS-rendingly melodramatic at the same time.1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 64:

Scotland The greater or larger part.

I hae been a devil the feck o' my lifea. 1786, Robert Burns, The Carle of Kellyburn Braes:

verb

Etymology Borrowed from Scots, aphetic form of effect.

—But why did they run away, tell us? —I know why, Cecil Thunder said. Because they had fecked cash out of the rector's room. —Who fecked it? —Kickham's brother. And they all went shares in it. But that was stealing. How could they have done that?1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:
And isn't it pure gangsters run the car parks, the price of them, and security cameras my arse, begging your pardon, sure it's watching videos they'd be, while some scut of a ten-year-old's fecking your tape machine and maybe going back to break off the aerial if they don't approve of your taste in music.2009, Julian Gough, Juno & Juliet: A Novel:

verb

Ireland Used in place of fuck.

Earlier there was a dispute between the Chair and Proinsias de Rossa concerning the words used when a wife is getting rid of her husband. In the case of Deserted Wives' Allowance, Mr de Rossa said, it had to be proved that the wife didn't tell her husband to "feck off". Mr Tunney suggested that "get lost" might be a more appropriate expression for Mr de Rossa to use.1987 April 3, Deaglán Bréadún, “Ruairi shows the grey-suits how to break moulds”, in The Irish Times:
"Why are you fecking around with this Family Planning Bill when people are dying?" - Senator David Norris to the Minister for Health, Dr O'Connell, on the Bill which does not allow condoms to be sold from vending machines.1992 July 18, “This Week They Said”, in The Irish Times:

4 more examples

Father Jack Hackett: Tea? Feck! […] Mrs. Doyle: I'll tell you what, Father. I'll pour a cup for ye anyway and y' can have it if ya want. Now... And what do you say to a cup? Father Jack Hackett: Feck off, cup!1995, Graham Linehan & al., "Good Luck, Father Ted", Father Ted Series 1, Episode 1, Channel Four
As Charlie Murphy put it to me, 'When the bishops called down fire and brimstone not a man stirred but when Joe Christle fecked off half the shagging IRA followed him!'2002, Tim Pat Coogan, The I.R.A.:
It didn't stop him turning to a reporter, saying "feck it" and nipping out anyway to talk to friends.2004 May 29, “A real thorn in the side; Profile: Diarmuid Gavin”, in The Herald:
"My family were Irish," she says, "and the use of the word 'feck' was normal but, of course, as a child, I thought it was a swear word. My first day at Holycross I heard the nuns saying feckin' this and feckin' that and I thought, 'Oh my God, they're all swearing'["]2010 October 28, Erwin James, “Britain's queen of crime: Martina Cole”, in The Guardian:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.