# Feckless Youth?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feckless-youth/474937
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 29, 2008, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feckless-youth/474937 "2008-11-29T16:49:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@siggma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/siggma)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2008, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feckless-youth/474937/1 "2008-11-29T16:49:24Z")
In the [FAQ](http://www.straightdope.com/pages/faq/cecil) for this straight dope site I noted this reference:
> [@](#):
>
> 1. **Did Cecil have a vast army of assistants to help him with his research?**
>
> No. On occasion he called his brother-in-law. He has also had the assistance of an editor, generally a feckless youth, plus an illustrator. …
Could you explain the term “feckless youth” and perhaps provide a more useful example and a bit of history on the term “feckless” beyond the obviously slanderous reference?
I recall it as a rather old world term meaning “indentured youth” modernized now as a tongue in cheek “non commissioned intern” or perhaps “commandeered child”.
Care to comment?
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### Author:  [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2008, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feckless-youth/474937/2 "2008-11-29T17:11:35Z")
Huh? AFAIK it just means something along the lines of happy-go-lucky, careless, irresponsible or summat. Are you remembering the right word?
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### Author:  [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2008, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feckless-youth/474937/3 "2008-11-29T17:17:28Z")
> [@http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/feckless?jss=0](#):
>
> feck⋅less
> /ˈfɛklɪs/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [fek-lis] Show IPA Pronunciation
> –adjective
>
> 1. ineffective; incompetent; futile: feckless attempts to repair the plumbing.
> 2. having no sense of responsibility; indifferent; lazy.
> Origin:
> 1590–1600; orig. Scots, equiv. to feck, late ME (Scots) fek, aph. form of effeck (Scots form of effect ) + -less
etc.
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### Author:  [@siggma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/siggma)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feckless-youth/474937/4 "2008-11-29T18:21:17Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Origin:
> 1590–1600; orig. Scots, equiv. to feck, late ME (Scots) fek, aph. form of effeck (Scots form of effect ) + -less
I think my recall fits it well.
I’m thinking 1800’s or earlier. Possibly European or English usage. It’s a term that has a rather diverse etiology, not all of which is available online.
🙂
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### Author:  [@siggma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/siggma)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2008, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feckless-youth/474937/5 "2008-11-29T18:29:57Z")
How about “Capybara”? Now there’s a term…
Isn’t that a pig-mouse?
Marsupial or avunclark-pygmy?
No, not avuncular. Probably need a reference library for that one. I think the capybara is an avunclark-pygmy.
-Tom
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2008, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feckless-youth/474937/6 "2008-11-29T18:44:05Z")
Virtually every word in the English language has shifted or added meanings over its lifetime. That a word originally meant one thing is totally irrelevant today.
However, etiology still has a single primary usage as the cause or origin of disease, not causation or origin in general. The word when applied to language is etymology.
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feckless-youth/474937/7 "2008-11-29T18:47:51Z")
I have quite a sore throat these days. I wonder what may be its etymology. 😉
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feckless-youth/474937/8 "2008-11-29T18:54:12Z")
> [@siggma](#):
>
> I’m thinking 1800’s or earlier.
Feckless is in the 1913 version of [Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary](http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?action=search&resource=Webster's&word=feckless&quicksearch=on&sourceid=Mozilla-search), but not the 1828 edition.
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### Author:  [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feckless-youth/474937/9 "2008-11-29T20:07:13Z")
According to _1000 Most Obscure Words_ by Norman W. Schur, the term “feckful”, meaning “strong and brawny” is listed in Robert Willan’s _List of Ancient Words at Present Used in the Mountainous District of the West Riding of Yorkshire_, which dates from 1811. The original root of both feckless and feckful is “feck”, a mainly Scottish and Northern English term that in turn seems to be a variant of “effect”, having lost its unstressed initial vowel.