密歇根新闻广播 reckless能成为reckful吗?

We can be fined for "reckless" driving. So why aren’t we praised for "reckful" driving?

Our listener, Andrew Conkling, recently pointed¹ out to us the confusing nature of “reckless”:

"I was describing the word to my 6-year-old yesterday as he was demonstrating the definition and realized it’s a hard word to parse². There is no 'reckful,' there isn’t a 'reck.' How did we get settled with just that form?"

This question is similar to others we've covered in the past, including "ruthless" and "feckless."

Conkling is right. Like "ruthless," "reckless" doesn't have a "ful" counterpart like "feckless" does. However, there is a "reck" in our language.

It's most likely that "reckless" goes back to the verb form of "reck." As a verb, "reck" meant to take care, to take notice, to take heed³. Therefore, if you're "reckless," you're not taking care.

The verb "reck" shows up early in English. Shakespeare used it a lot, including in this quote from "As You Like It": "My master is of churlish disposition⁴ and little recks to find the way to heaven." In other words, the master doesn't care about finding the way to heaven.

The Oxford⁵ English Dictionary offers this more recent example from 1954: "They can preach holy war, and that is ever the most deadly kind, for it recks nothing of consequences." We may not use "reck" very often, but it is out there.

On the other hand, "reckless" is still commonly used to describe someone or something that is indifferent to consequences, rash, heedless, etc. It tends to occur alongside "driving," "endangerment," "behavior," disregard," and "abandon."

1 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

2 parse   

v.从语法上分析；n.从语法上分析

参考例句：

• I simply couldn't parse what you just said.我完全无法对你刚说的话作语法分析。
• It causes the parser to parse an NP.它调用分析程序分析一个名词短语。

3 heed   

v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心

参考例句：

• You must take heed of what he has told.你要注意他所告诉的事。
• For the first time he had to pay heed to his appearance.这是他第一次非得注意自己的外表不可了。

4 disposition   

n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署

参考例句：

• He has made a good disposition of his property.他已对财产作了妥善处理。
• He has a cheerful disposition.他性情开朗。

5 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。