What does feart mean?
'Feart' is a dialectal adjective meaning frightened or afraid, used primarily in Scotland and northern England. It arose as the past tense and past participle of the verb 'fear' — an older way of forming the participle that survives in regional speech even though standard English settled on other constructions. In everyday Scots, saying that someone is 'feart of the dark' or 'too feart to speak' is entirely natural, and the word carries a homely, colloquial warmth rather than any literary pretension. Outside these regions it can strike listeners as quaint or unfamiliar, so writers aiming at a general audience usually prefer 'afraid' or 'frightened'. For anyone interested in how English varies across Britain, however, 'feart' is a fine example of a once-standard grammatical form that retreated into regional use while remaining fully alive in daily conversation north of the border.
adjectiveFrightened or scared; a dialectal past tense and participle of the verb 'fear', used chiefly in Scots and northern English speech as an adjective meaning afraid.
- Afraid or frightened (dialectal adjective, from the past participle of 'fear').
"There was nae need tae be feart of the dark."
"Dinnae be feart, the dog willnae bite."
"He was too feart to say anything to her face."
In Scotland, being scared has its own word — 'feart' — a living relic of how English speakers once formed the past tense of 'fear'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of feart
'Feart' is the dialectal past tense and past participle of 'fear', which descends from Old English 'fær', meaning sudden danger or calamity, from Proto-Germanic roots conveying peril. The form reflects an older pattern of strong verb inflection that standard English largely abandoned, but which persisted in Scots and northern dialects. It thus shares a distant common origin with words such as 'peril', through the Indo-European root meaning danger or risk.
How feart is actually used
Strongly regional: this form belongs chiefly to Scots and the dialects of northern England and would sound out of place in formal standard English. In standard usage, 'afraid' or 'frightened' replaces it.
Easily confused with feart
'Fear' is the standard English verb and noun for the emotion, while 'feart' is its dialectal past tense/participle used adjectivally in Scots and northern England.