Well, wordnerd, since you didn't get any replies, I tried googling the phrase. However, I only found it in the poem that was posted. Perhaps no one has seen it before?
The problem here is that two phrases have been combined. As Bob says, the less polite one is "Sweet F*** All" (or with other euphemistic subsititions like "Sweet Fanny Adams"). It is common enough in the UK.
The other phrase is said to be a corruption of the French "Ce n'est fait rien" which colloquially means "It doesn't matter". This phrase is also common enough in England
So the two similar-sounding phrases actually have slightly different meanings. The first means "nothing at all" and the second, "It doesn't matter" or sometimes "I don't really care".
Nobody would ever use "sweet san fairy anne" in England.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
I believe that the phrase "San Fairy Ann" or "San Ferry Ann" (which is also the title of a 1965 English Film about a family on a day trip to France) originally comes from a humourous mishearing of "Sans faire rien" meaning "without doing anything". I suspect that "Sweet FA" connection suggested by arnie was added later as "Sweet FA" is generally believed to derive from "Sweet Fanny Adams" once again with the "f*** all" meaning being a later change.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
Richard says, Nobody would ever use "sweet san fairy anne" in England.
Perhaps not now. But two 1934 songwriters put that that phrase at the end of the song shufitz linked to. That song, Anne Boleyn, seems quite British, and so does another song by the same songwriters, suggesting that they were British gents.
Richard, you'll enjoy that latter song, called Lloyd George's Beer. It bemoans the poor quality of beer during WWI.
quote:It's a substitute, and a pubstitute, And it's known as Government Ale
Dip your bread in it, Shove your head in it From January to October, And I'll bet a penny that you"ll still be sober.
