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fash - From Ulster to America

Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English

Author: Michael Montgomery

Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.

fash vb To annoy, trouble or vex (oneself), become impatient. [< French facher; oed fash vb 1 ‘to afflict, annoy, trouble, vex’ 1533→, 2 ‘to weary, be annoyed; to bother or trouble oneself; to take trouble’ 1535→, chiefly Scottish and northern dialect; dost fasch vb ‘to trouble, bother, annoy’ 1540→]

Ulst.:

1734 Northern Bard 160 I guess your Meaning by your Wink, / Ne’er fash your Heed.

1813 Porter Glossary Poetical Attempts = to trouble, to care for.

1840 Boyce Shandy Maguire 39 Niver fash yourself—it’s no harm, I tell ye.

1880 Patterson Antrim/Down Glossary 36 = to trouble oneself: ‘Don’t fash your lug’ = pay no heed, never mind.

c1910 Byers Glossary = to trouble; to have too much of, as ‘I am fashed with it’.

1920 McCallin Fireside Tales 148 Most o’ ye must a-noticed that, as a rule, people soon got fashed listenin’ till a man when he starts bletherin’ about them that have shown a fondness for him.

2005 Wright No Sae Bad 17 But A’m no that fashed whun A think wae a grin / O aa tha airts ma get up hae bin.

U.S.:

1870 Stewardson Nesh Neb Butty 249 to fash oneself = to worry.

1956 Settle Beulah Land 280 Don’t fash yourselves.