Simon Schama
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Someone feckless is lacking in feck. And what, you may ask, is feck? In Scots—our source of feckless—feck means "majority" or "effect." The term is ultimately an alteration of the Middle English effect. So something without feck is without effect, or ineffective. In the past, feckful (meaning "efficient, effective," "sturdy," or "powerful") made an occasional appearance. But in this case, the weak has outlived the strong: feckless is a commonly used English word, but feckful has fallen out of use.
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Examples of feckless in a Sentence
Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 3 May 2024
Letter-writer Bill McGregor blames Joe Biden for normalizing Iran’s feckless missile attack on Israel.
—Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 22 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for feckless 
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Dictionary Entries Near feckless
Cite this Entry
“Feckless.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feckless. Accessed 29 May. 2024.
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