reck

See also Reck

English

Alternative forms

• reak (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English recken, rekken, reken, from Old English rēccan, rēcan, from Proto-Germanic *rōkijanan (“to care, take care”), from Proto-Indo-European *rēǵ-, *rēg- (“to care, help”). Cognate with Low German roken, ruken (“to reck, care”), German geruhen (“to deign, condescend”), Icelandic rækja (“to care, regard, discharge”), Danish røgte (“to care, tend”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛk

Verb

reck (third-person singular simple present recks, present participle recking, simple past and past participle recked)

1. (transitive) To make account of; to care for; to heed; to regard; consider.
   • 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XI, page 136:

     She recks not now, as of old, whether her word carries with it the sting or the sweet—it is not now in her thought to ask whether pain or pleasure follows the thoughtless slight or the scornful pleasantry. The victim suffers, but she recks not of his grief.

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Chapter 13

     Little recked he perhaps for what she felt, that dull aching void in her heart sometimes, piercing to the core.

2. (intransitive) To care; to matter.
   • 1822, John E. Hall (ed.), The Port Folio, vol. XIV

     Little thou reck'st^[2] of this sad store!

     Would thou might never reck^[1] them more!

   • 1900, Ernest Dowson, Villanelle of Marguerite's, lines 10-11

     She knows us not, nor recks if she enthrall

     With voice and eyes and fashion of her hair […]

3. To concern, to be important

   It recks not!

4. (intransitive, obsolete) To think.

Derived terms

• reckful
• reckless