Rekelesnesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Archaic term for a failure to pay proper attention or take due care, leading to carelessness about what might follow
2. An old word describing heedlessness, the state of acting without concern for danger, duty, or the outcome of one's conduct
3. Middle English noun for negligence, meaning a casual disregard for caution or responsibility in one's actions

Etymology: Middle English "rekelesnesse" is a noun built from two parts: "reckless" (from Old English "reccan" or "recceleas", meaning "careless, heedless," where "-less" marks the absence of something) and the suffix "-ness," which turns an adjective into a state or quality. Put together, the word names the condition of being without care or heed. Its root "reccan" is the same verb that gave modern English "reck," as in "he recked nothing of the danger," which is a fact worth noticing for anyone who has used "reckless" without thinking of its verb. The word was not always negative in the way it sounds now. Medieval writers used it for carelessness in general, and "recklessness" could describe a lapse of attention as easily as a bold, dangerous act. Over time the sense narrowed toward the rash disregard of consequences that dominates modern usage. The older form "rekelesnesse" shows the spelling of the period before standardisation, when English writers spelled words according to how they sounded to them rather than by a fixed convention.