word history

Reckless

Niall O'Donnell 5 Comments

A while back I wondered, considering one can be ruthless, can one also therefore be ruthful. Toaday I considered a similar case: can you be reckful?

The answer is yes, but you’d sound quite old-fashioned. To reck is a now mainly obsolete word meaning to heed/pay attention to. It’s from the 16th century, and derived from the Old English reccan, meaning to take care of/heed of.

As to reck came to be used as a noun as well as a verb, the adjectives reckful and reckless logically followed. Reckful didn’t stand the test of time though, probably for two main reasons. I think it simply doesn’t sound as catchy as reckless. More importantly though, talking about someone being reckful generally isn’t as interesting as talking about someone reckless, so we’re naturally going to talk about the latter more.

So if you want to use the word reckful, you can, but consider that you can also use heedful, attentive, or other similar, more common words. But also consider: wouldn’t it be much more exciting to use reckless instead!?

Fire and Fury

Niall O'Donnell 6 Comments

You may have heard of this book, an insider’s look at Trump’s chaotic White House. I have some doubts about how true all the book’s revelations are, but some of them sound convincing, like Trump going to bed at 6.30pm with a cheeseburger.

You might known that the title comes from a speech earlier this year in which Trump threatened to “unleash fire and fury” on North Korea. Fury was an interesting choice of word. You could tell that it was one of Trump’s scripted speeches, because he normally wouldn’t have the vocabulary to come up with such a word spontaneously.

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Make Up

Niall O'Donnell 5 Comments

I’ll have to make up some excuse for why I’m late.

They often argue, but they always make up soon afterwards.

Let me just finish putting on my make-up and then we can go.

I’m often impressed by the economy of the English language.

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One Little Mistake

Niall O'Donnell 9 Comments

I alway say that making mistakes is a vital part of learning a language,  to the point of tedium, I’m sure. Making mistakes is also, however, a key aspect of the formation of a language.

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2018 Goals

Niall O'Donnell 7 Comments

I don’t have any 2018 goals to be honest. I just wanted to set that out straight away so you’re not disappointed. I’m one of those terrible people who never set New Year’s resolutions.

I don’t have any particular problem with them. I just think that if you want to make some change, you don’t need to wait for a particular point in time to start. And if it’s a big change, it’s probably better to ease into it, rather than making a sudden change. The word goal though, is somewhat interesting to me.

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Analogue and Digital

Niall O'Donnell 5 Comments

Writing in a recent post about telling the time got me thinking about the words analogue and digital.

They’re two words that can be used in many different contexts, and I can safely say that I have a general sense of their meaning. Giving each a precise definition, however, is not always so easy.

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Maiden Name

Niall O'Donnell 9 Comments

You may never have thought much about this term. It probably seems fairly logical to you. It’s the name your mother had when she was a younger woman, before she was married, and maiden is an old word for a young woman, isn’t it? Yes, but as always, there’s a little more to it than that.

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