2016年6月10日星期五

feck, feckless, rue the day, canny, rueful, thyme

The leader of Britain's opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, hails from the old Eurosceptic left and appears uninterested, unable or unwilling to support Remain. That is feckless.

Tate 和 Thomas Lawrence。

'I know a bank where the wild thyme blows'. Which ‪#‎Shakespeare‬ play inspired William Blake? http://ow.ly/4mJAZZ

Mr. Chowdhury — who says the idea for EnergyPods came to him in a nap — recalls a seminar in which one banker responded to a survey question with a note saying she knew she had no fatigue-related problems at work because the only time she fell asleep was when she sat still. Mr. Chowdhury laughs a bit ruefully: “Maybe we could have avoided the crisis we are in now if these people had just gotten proper sleep.”

We’ll Fill This Space, but First a Nap

Stan Honda/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Some large companies provide EnergyPods, leather recliners with hoods to block noise and light, to help employees take naps and return to work refreshed.

China’s new tax is canny. It cuts fuel use, reduces imports, benefits local carmakers and may help to improve air quality. It also prevents any more pesky calls from Geneva.

Still No Way Out The ever-feckless Bush administration, rather than looking for ways to compel Iraq’s leaders to perform, is lessening the pressure.
The Tame, the Trashy and the Rocker Quality
By VIRGINIA HEFFERNANVH1’s series has trudged along like a heartbroken drunk, featuring Bret Michaels of Poison, who ultimately comes off as a puppyish party boy amongst feckless women.

Feck (or fek) is a form of effeck, which is in turn the Scots form of effect. However, this Scots noun has additional significance:

Efficacy; force; value; return
Amount; quantity (or a large amount/quantity)
The greater or larger part (when used with a definite article)

From the first sense we derive feckless, meaning witless, weak or ineffective; worthless; irresponsible; indifferent; lazy. Feckless remains a part of the Modern English and Scottish English lexicons; it appears in a number of Scottish adages:

"Feckless folk are aye fain o ane anither."

"Feckless fools should keep canny tongues."

In his 1881 short story Thrawn Janet, Robert Louis Stevenson invokes the second sense of feck as cited above:

"He had a feck o' books wi' him—mair than had ever been seen before in a' that presbytery..."

Robert Burns uses the third sense of feck in the final stanza of his 1792 poem "Kellyburn Braes":

I hae been a Devil the feck o' my life,

Hey, and the rue grows bonie wi' thyme;

"But ne'er was in hell till I met wi' a wife,"

And the thyme it is wither'd, and rue is in prime.

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Thyme

Herb

Thyme is an evergreen herb with culinary, medicinal, and ornamental uses. The most common variety is Thymus vulgaris. Thyme is of the genus Thymus of the mint family, and a relative of the oregano genus Origanum. Wikipedia

feckless

(fĕk'lĭs)

adj. ━━ a. 無価値の, 役に立たない; 弱々しい.

Lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective.
Careless and irresponsible.

[Scots feck, effect (alteration of EFFECT) + –LESS.]

rue Show phonetics
verb [T] rueing or ruing, rued, rued OLD USE OR LITERARY
to feel sorry about an event and wish it had not happened; regret

rueful Show phonetics
adjective LITERARY
feeling sorry and full of regret:
He turned away with a rueful laugh.

ruefully Show phonetics
adverb LITERARYrue the day
to regret something very much:
She'll rue the day (that) she bought that house.