Dictionary

reck en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ɹɛk/
• (US) audio

Etymology

From Middle English recken, rekken, reken, from Old Norse rœkja (compare Old English rēċċan, rēċan (“to care, reck, take care of, be interested in, care for, desire”); whence English retch), from Proto-Germanic *rōkijaną (“to care, take care”), from Proto-Indo-European *rēǵ-, *rēg- (“to care, help”). Cognate with obsolete Dutch roeken, Low German roken, ruken (“to reck, care”), German geruhen (“to deign, condescend”), Icelandic rækja (“to care, regard, discharge”), Danish røgte (“to care, tend”), Swedish rykta (“to groom”). See reckon.

Meanings

1. (archaic, qualifier:intransitive (usually with of or for), transitive) To take account of (someone or something); to care for; to consider, to heed, to regard.
   • Little thou reck'st of this sad store! Would thou might never reck them more! 1822, John E. Hall, editor, The Port Folio, volume XIV:
   • 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. 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XI, page 136:
   • She knows us not, nor recks if she enthrall With voice and eyes and fashion of her hair […] 1900, Ernest Dowson, Villanelle of Marguerite's, lines 10–11:
   • […]with that care lost / went all his fear: of God, or hell, or worse / he recked not[…] 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, line 50:
   • Little recked he perhaps for what she felt, that dull aching void in her heart sometimes, piercing to the core. 1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC:
   • Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, / Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, / Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine, / Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, / And recks not his own rede. c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
2. (archaic, catenative) To want (to do something); to desire to, to be inclined to, to care to.
   • My master is of churlish disposition, / And little recks to find the way to heaven / By doing deeds of hospitality. c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], lines 798-800:
3. (archaic, intransitive, with-of) To know about, to know of, to be aware of.
   • Little recked the busy multitude in that great smoky town of Blackingham of the solemn glories of the fading woods, with all their mellow brown and crimson foliage; little dreamed they of gorgeous sunsets, purple clouds, roseate mists, and lingering lovely-coloured lights in mountain passes; […] 1866, Emma Jane Worboise, “Mr. Armstrong’s Will”, in Sir Julian’s Wife, London: Virtue Brothers and Co., […], →OCLC, page 1:
4. (obsolete, transitive) To reckon, to consider, to regard (someone or something) as.
5. (ambitransitive, archaic, dialectal) To concern (someone); to be important or of interest to; to matter.
   • What recks it them? 1637 (date written; published 1638), John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:
   • It recks not!
6. (dialectal, obsolete, reflexive) To concern oneself, to trouble oneself.

Forms

Deriveds

reckless · reckling · unrecked · unrecking · reckful