Care

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /kɛə/

Definitions

1. Serious attention or consideration given to avoid damage, risk, or error when doing something
2. The act of providing attention, concern, or support for someone or something, often involving emotional investment and responsibility for their welfare
3. An anxious or cautious attitude toward potential problems or dangers ; the effort involved in maintaining or protecting something or someone ; the feeling of responsibility or concern for another's well-being

Etymology: The English word "care" once meant sorrow and grief, not the attentive concern it signals today. Its Old English ancestor "caru" carried the sense of anxiety, sorrow and trouble, and the related verb "carian" meant to grieve or be troubled before it came to mean looking after something. The modern sense of attentive watchfulness developed from that anxious core: worrying about something is close to paying careful attention to it. The noun and verb have deep roots in Germanic. The Proto-Germanic form "karō" meant care, sorrow or cry, and it has relatives across the family, including Gothic "kara" (concern), Old Saxon "cara" (concern, action), and Middle High German "kar" (sorrow, lamentation). The Old Norse-influenced Icelandic "kör" once meant a sickbed, a reminder of how closely illness and anxiety were tied together in these meanings. Some of its relatives have drifted far from the original idea. German "karg" now means sparse or meagre, and Dutch "karig" means scanty, showing how the same ancient root branched into very different senses across the languages.

Synonyms: concern, attention, consideration, tenderness

Antonyms: indifference, neglect, apathy