Fei worschd /faɪ vɒrʃd/
Hochdeutsch: ist egal / kommt nicht drauf an, wörtlich: ist (eigentlich) Wurst
English: does not matter
Franconians, even though they would never admit to it, can be little magpies, too. Just like the black and white birds, they like to steal shiny things – in this special case, it is the Bavarian word “fei”.
There is no translation for “fei”. There is no real meaning behind the word itself, either. “Fei” is used to strengthen a word that follows, to give it a bigger and embellished meaning. It can roughly be translated to “allerdings” or “übrigens”, yet this never hits the nail on the head. Where this word comes from, nobody really knows. Possibly, Bavarians (and in turn, Franconians) just felt that since nobody understood their dialects, they needed something to make absolutely clear how important a certain matter might be.
Fei worschd can thus roughly be translated to “übrigens/allerdings Wurst”, meaning it’s just sausage. This might not make much sense in itself, but actually, the sausage, being a very important part of German culture, has taken a place in this expression for a matter that is of no importance whatsoever. The “fei” boosts the meaning in so far that it might be translated as “I don’t give a shit”, or even better, “I don’t give a single [vulgar word for sexual intercourse]”. This example shows how modest Franconians are, who rather use a sausage to express their complete lack of interest than something that a lot of people absolutely enjoy doing, but seldom talk about.
