F.A.

Fanny Adams, sweet F.A.

n

British

a.

nothing at all. Fanny Adams is a wide-spread euphemism for fuck-all.

b.

a pitifully small amount. In 19th-century naval slang, Fanny Adams was tinned or cooked meat, a sardonic reference to a girl of the same name who was murdered and dismembered in 1867.

The name was later matched with the initials of fuck-all and used euphemistically in its place.

► 'He says Eve behaved like a complete bitch over the kids' custody...and he'll get sweet F.A. out of the sale of the house.' (Party gossip in cartoon by Posy Sim-monds, Guardian, 1979)