Feckless
/ˈfɛkləs/noun
Lacking initiative, strength, or effectiveness.
Did you know?Feck comes from a Scottish and northern English word for “effectiveness” or “value,” ultimately tied to the idea of profit and consequence, so feckless literally marks someone as lacking force or practical worth.
Etymological Timeline
Old Scots / Middle English
Scots
feck
“Force, effect, value, or substance.”
16th Century
English
feckless
“Without effect or worth; weak, useless, or futile.”
Modern English
English
feckless
“Lacking initiative, energy, or competence.”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*dheh₁-
“To put, place, or set; the ancestral source behind Latin facere and related words of doing and making.”