Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
By Barbara McAlister
Word of the Day: Feckless
Feckless is one of those interesting words that doesn’t really have a positive counterpart. Feck was originally a shortened term from the Scots dialect meaning effect. The word feckless therefore means ineffective and generally incompetent. While you may hear someone referred to as a feckless idiot, you will not hear the word feck used. This is called an unpaired word, meaning a word without a counterpart.
Gormless is another of these unpaired words from the British Isles. It means dull or stupid. While “gorm” may have been used in the Middle Ages, it is no longer used. Only a gormless fool would argue otherwise. You might think ruthless falls into this category of unpaired words, but there is the seldom used archaic “ruth,” which means pity, sorrow or distress. Therefore, a ruthless person is without mercy or pity.
We seem to prefer negative expressions. More words with positive meanings have fallen into disuse than the other way around. One encounters hapless (unfortunate) more than hap (fortunate), although happy has survived. Disgruntled means dissatisfied, but one can be equally gruntled, or content. Ineffable may be inexpressible or indescribable, but there is also that which is effable and can be described or uttered.
Disheveled and dismayed are not unpaired words. Although it sounds like there should be a shevelled or a mayed, they are from similar sounding Old French words and are not really negative words. Likewise, nonplussed, meaning confused or bewildered. It’s from the Latin “non plus,” meaning no more or no further can be said. To state that you were plussed would only nonplus the listener.
