different between unpurposed vs feckless

English

Etymology

un- +? purposed

Adjective

unpurposed (comparative more unpurposed, superlative most unpurposed)

1. Without purpose.

   Synonyms: aimless, goalless, purposeless

   • 1645, John Milton, Tetrachordon, London, p. 32,^[1]

     If that Law did well to reduce from liberty to bondage for an ingratitude not the greatest, much more became it the Law of God to enact the restorement of a free born man from an unpurpos’d, and unworthy bondage to a rightfull liberty for the most unnatural fraud and ingratitude that can be committed against him.

   • 1917, Sinclair Lewis, The Job, New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., Part I, Chapter 5, §3, p. 60,^[2]

     He was distinguished from his fellows by the fact that each year he grew more aware that he hadn’t even a dim candle of talent; that he was ill-planned and unpurposed; that he would have to settle down to the ordinary gray limbo of jobs and offices […]

   • 1957, Muriel Spark, The Comforters, London: Macmillan, Chapter 7,

     ‘Your questions about Mrs Jepp, I can’t possibly answer them, ‘said Mervyn, looking at his watch but unpurposed, settling into his chair […]

2. Not deliberate.

   Synonyms: inadvertent, undesigned, unintended, unintentional; see also Thesaurus:unintentional

   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV, Scene 14,^[3]

     When I did make thee free, sworest thou not then

     To do this when I bade thee? Do it at once;

     Or thy precedent services are all

     But accidents unpurposed.

   • 1640, William Whately, Prototypes, London: Edward Langham, The Thirteenth Example, pp. 199-200,^[4]

     […] the Lord will surely accept him and forgive his unpurposed offences and sinnes of meere weakenesse and frailty.

   • 1893, George Gissing, The Odd Women, London: Lawrence & Bullen, Volume I, Chapter 7, p. 188,^[5]

     It was written in very small characters—perhaps an unpurposed indication of the misgivings with which she allowed herself to pen the words.

   • 1948, Gilbert Murray (translator), Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus, London: George Allen & Unwin, p. 33,^[6]

     O pitying strangers, since ye will not hear

     My old blind father, for some tales ye have heard

     Of his unpurposed sin, Oh, still give ear

     To a lost maiden, and accept the word

     I speak for his sake […]

English

Etymology

From Scots feckless, variant of Scots fectless (“ineffectual”) (an aphetic variant of effectless), equivalent to effect +? -less.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?f?kl?s/, /?f?kl?s/
• (US)

Adjective

feckless (comparative more feckless, superlative most feckless)

1. Lacking purpose.
   • 2005, Canberra Times, September 10

     "It is the beauty of great games when they are played at their highest level and the extraordinary thing now is that we do not have to trawl back through all the years of your inexorable progress from feckless beach boy to master sportsman."

2. Without skill, ineffective, incompetent.
3. (Britain) Lacking the courage to act in any meaningful way.
4. (Britain, archaic) Lacking vitality.

Synonyms

• (weak, ineffective): futile, hopeless, ineffective, ineffectual, feeble, meaningless, useless
• (worthless, irresponsible): unpurposed, worthless, aimless, careless, reckless, irresponsible

Antonyms

• (weak, ineffective): effective, efficient, meaningful, useful
• (worthless, irresponsible): purposeful, careful, responsible

Related terms

• fecklessly
• fecklessness

Translations

Further reading

• feckless in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• feckless in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

References

Scots

Alternative forms

• fectless (obsolete)

Etymology

feck (“value”) +? -less

Adjective

feckless (not comparable)

1. ineffective

References

• “feckless” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.