Where does “feckless” come from?
Feckless comes from Scots feck, meaning "effect" or "worth," plus the English suffix -less, ultimately from Old English feccan, meaning "to fetch" or "obtain."
feckless (English): Lacking purpose; Without skill, ineffective,...
Definitions
- Lacking purpose; Without skill, ineffective,...
Ancestry of “feckless”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scots | feckless | ineffective |
| 2 | Scots | -less | lacking; without. Added usually to a noun to form an adjective signifying a lack of that noun |
| 3 | Middle English | -les | Lacking (something); without (something) |
| 4 | Turkish | -le | with, shortened form of ile; by, shortened form... |
| 5 | Turkish | ile | with; and |
| 6 | Ottoman Turkish | ایله | by |
| 7 | Old Anatolian Turkish | اِیلَه | — |
| 8 | Proto-Turkic | bile | with, together, also |