feart

English

Adjective

feart (comparative more feart, superlative most feart)

1. (Scotland) Frightened, scared or afraid.
   • 1994, Eileen Ramsay, The Broken Gate, London : Warner, →ISBN, page 88:

     Sometimes I think of having my own wee baby and there’s joy in me like I’ve never felt before and then, sometimes, at night when Charlie’s asleep, I get feart for I remember your screams.

   • 2001, John Boyle, Galloway Street, Long Preston [England] : Magna Large Print, →ISBN, page 15:

     The funny thing is I’m not even feart, I just lie there looking up at it and after a while it backs away till all I can see is the dark shape […]

   • 2012, Ross Raisin, Waterline, New York, NY : Perennial, →ISBN, page 148:

     Trying just to shake the crawling panic that tenses inside him whenever he gets eyeballed, quickening past them, just keeping going, tired and sore but keeping on the move because he is too feart to stop.

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /firt/, [firʔ]

Adjective

feart (comparative mair feart, superlative maist feart)

1. frightened, afraid
   • 1981, Alasdair Gray, Lanark, page 152:

     It’s the science man I’m feart from. He’s the sort that’ll hammer ye jist because he’s in a bad mood.

     It's the scientist I'm afraid of. He's the sort that'll hammer you just because he's in a bad mood.

   • 2018, Chris McQueer, HWFG, 404Ink, published 2018, page 10:

     Wee cunt looks feart ae me noo when joost a second ago he wis laughin at me.

     The little cunt looks afraid of me now, when just a second ago he was laughing at me.

West Frisian

Etymology

A borrowing from Middle Dutch vart, vāert, from Old Dutch fard, from Proto-Germanic *fardiz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɪə̯t/

Noun

feart c (plural fearten, diminutive feartsje)

1. (uncountable) speed, rapidity
2. (uncountable) sailing, navigation
3. (countable) canal

Further reading

• “feart”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011