Recks

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To cause or result in destruction or damage
2. To regard or treat something or someone with a lack of consideration or concern
3. To be indifferent to the consequences of one's actions or decisions

Etymology: The verb "recks" is a bit of a puzzle, because its surviving sense, "to cause damage or destruction," sits far from its ancestors. In this form it is the third-person singular of "reck," a word whose core meaning was once "to care" or "to take heed." The shift appears in the phrase "it recks not," meaning "it does not matter," which kept the old sense of caring alive, but the destructive sense belongs to a different and later line of usage. The older verb traces back through Middle English "recken" and "rekken" to Old Norse "rœkja," meaning "to care, regard, discharge," with close Old English cousins like "rēċċan," "to care, take care of." Those words in turn grow from a Germanic root meaning "to care," and further back from a Proto-Indo-European root with the sense "to care, help." Several relatives survive in other Germanic languages, such as German "geruhen," meaning "to deign," which shows how far the care-related sense ranged.

Synonyms: wrecks, destroys, ruins, shatters, devastates

Antonyms: builds, constructs, creates, restores, repairs