From the context of discussion, What does the phrase 'hard done by' mean?
I took "hard done by" to mean "taken advantage unfair of" as in "He felt hard done by by former friends."
I had never heard the phrase before and have not heard it since. In fact I'm not sure my example sentence is properly constructed using two "by's".
Is it generally Canadian? A Canadian regionalism? Or is it more widely used by non-American English speakers around the world?
EDIT: Does the phrase include the word "by" and then require a second by for proper usage?
If the meaning is akin to "betrayed", then does the sentence "He felt betrayed by his friend" equate to
He felt hard done by his friend ("by" is not part of the phrase)
OR
He felt hard done by by his friend ("by" IS part of the phrase and so needs another by)
Another example, is it:
The situation made him feel hard done
OR
The situation made him feel hard done by.