Monday, September 15, 2008

fess up

I learnt from Mark Mason of Chichester University at Initial Ministerial Education on Saturday the expression “fess up”. I tried it out on Mrs Lloyd and a couple of people at church and it was old hat to them, but to me it was a revelation.


The phrase, which I believe is common among the young people, is not a Turkish greeting and does not involve raising one’s head gear but means to confess or admit. For example, “I must fess up at the beginning of this lecture that I am a Christian and therefore I don’t buy into all this postmodern mumbo-jumbo I am going to seek to explain to you.”


Mr Mason belongs to an emerging church and I have no idea whether they also use the expression in a liturgical context, fessing up their sins in the fess before they abs them off, perhaps? This could be a Fresh Expression indeed.

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3 comments:

  1. Gerv2:05 pm

    I think "fess up" is probably a synonym for "admit" rather than "confess" in the sense of confessing sin.

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  2. Marc Lloyd4:57 pm

    How are you distinguish admitting and confessing sin?

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  3. Gerv6:36 pm

    Sorry, I was insufficiently clear. What I meant was:

    I think that in contemporary use "fess up" is probably a synonym for "admit", in the general sense (i.e. "You fancy Mary - come on, 'fess up!"), rather than "confess" in the more formal, solemn sense of confessing sin.

    In other words, the word has changed meaning as well as form.

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