A straight translation of “It’s a sair fecht” is – “It’s a sore fight.”
When people use this phrase they mean – “It’s a hard life.”
People usually say it when they are just a bit fed up with things, not seriously despondent or depressed.
As we are now coming to the end of the Easter holidays it’s a fair bet that my husband will be saying – it’s a sair fecht – sometime soon, at the thought of going back to teaching on Monday.
We used to say It’s a sair fecht for a hauf loaf, meaning it was a hard life! Haven’t come across a hauf loaf in your Scots words yet, but I AM working backwords!
Evee,
No! I’ve never heard that, we seemed to have been taught the abbreviated version, but it’s great and I’m going to start saying that too!
sair fecht for half a loaf. hard fight for very little return
aggie,
Yes, we always just stuck to saying ‘it’s a sair fecht’ but it does mean exactly what you said. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
In the Edinburgh region, bread was baked in two halves and you could buy one half or two. In later years, the bread was sold separately, but people still called it a hauf loaf.
isabel wallace,
I didn’t know that. I suppose it was the same in the west of Scotland but that was before my time. When I was young the bread nearly always came wrapped in greaseproof paper and people seemed to only buy ‘plain’ or ‘pan’ loaves. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
HALF LOAF IS A TYPE OF LOAF, A SMALL VERSION OF THE FULL LOAF AND PRESUMABLY CHEAPER.
I would imagine that your meaning would be something like ‘it’s a hard life for not much return ‘
Peter Campbell,
Yes your phrase fits the bill well, although not quite as pithy as the Scots version I think.
I live in Geelong, Australia and drove past a camper van the other day with the words “It’s a sair fecht” written on it. Being a Scot I was curious of the meaning so thank you for your explanation and I now understand what the camper van owner was trying to convey.
Andrew Rankine,
I’m so glad that one of those old phrases is alive and well in Australia. By coincidence I’m reading a book which mentions Geelong in passing, I half thought it might be a fictional place. It was mentioned in Anthony Trollope’s Rachel Ray. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
How could you think Geelong was fictional? Prince Charles was at school there for a couple of terms in 1966. I remember the news coverage very well.
Iain,
That was before my time.
Some folk think ye hauv tae hauv yer heid in the papers a’ the time!
Donald Scott,
Ah’m feart tae hauv ma heid stuck in a paper nooadays. Ah’m that stammagasted at the news!
It’s a tough life!…
lawrence,
That’s it!
So my Dundonian parents would say
Sair fecht anew (sp)
And they might say someone is pan loaffy (so)
There are great books on broad Dundonian dialect.
Therecwere local sayings such as “as daft as the hilltown clock”, the clock was broken for years.
Duting WW2 my father was stationed in Germany with RAF and learned German fast because he said “plat Deutsch “ was similar to certain Scottis dialects!
Paul Mahady,
Yes German and Dutch are very similar to some Scots and Northern English dialects I think. I haven’t heard ayone describing as someone being pan loafy for years. It of course means a bit snooty or posh. I think the ‘pan’ part of pan loaf comes originally from French as a lot of French words came to Scotland at the time of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
Katrina
Pan Loaf is a more expensive, softer bread – If you are Pan Loaffy, you are a snob, or an aspirational middle class type!
Maggie,
That’s true, sadly it’s years since I heard anyone actually using Pan Loaffy. I suppose more pan loaves than plain loaves are eaten nowadays. Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
Katrina
My mother came from Lossie and told of bad weather circumstances when foreign fishing boats, Duitch, Danish, Norwegian and even Russian, would seek shelter in the harbour. Hence many of her dialect words sprang from those contacts. I believe that a ‘sair fecht’ comes from German. I can easily imagine German fishermen saying ‘Das Wetter ist sehr schlecht” and becoming understood.
Willie Bryce,
That’s a reasonable theory although fecht has always been used to mean fight and of course sair is still used a lot today to mean sore. A lot of words we think of as Scots appear in the Scandinavian languages too and also in Frisia in the north east of the Netherlands.
Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
Katrina
Aberdeen version my granny used was “It’s a stair fecht for a bowl o’potted heid” Similar sentiment to a half loaf, I guess.
David,
It’s interesting that different places have their own version of it. Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
Katrina
I have just been chatting with my Dundonian partner concerning bread based colloquialisms. She remembers her granny making a sandwich, or toast, slicing it across the way and asking if she wanted a “plehn Geordie”. or a “curly Kate” The latter was the half with the rounded crust from the top of the loaf. the other half being the straight edged loaf bottom. I’m guessing that folk would offer the firmer bottom half of the bread to boy children, for strength. Girls might be offered the lighter, rounded edged top half slice to promote glamourous curly hair. I grew up in working class northern England, where eating the crusts of your bread was associated with growing curls!
Paul Dixon,
I’ve never heard of those descriptions, presumably it was a Dundonian or Tayside thing. In Glasgow we said that crusts would give you curly hair, but I think boys might have been told it would give them hair on their chest! Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment! I’ve noticed a lot of similarities between the north of England and Scotland where words are concerned. The Brontes used quite a few words which I had only met in Scotland before.
Katrina
I’m from a village not far out of Dundee (I now live in Australia too) and I remember my Dundonian grandmother asking me whether I wanted the “plehn Geordie or curly Kate”. Being male, crusts were going to “put hairs on my chest”.
Malcolm,
I hadn’t heard of plehn Geordie or curly Kate, but in the west of Scotland we also said that the crusts would put hair on your chest – to children anyway, although I can’t imagine any wee girls wanting hair on their chests! Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
Katrina