different between reck vs reak

English

Alternative forms

• reak (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English recken, rekken, reken, from Old Norse rœkja (compare Old English r???an, r??an (“to care, reck, take care of, be interested in, care for, desire”); whence English retch), from Proto-Germanic *r?kijan? (“to care, take care”), from Proto-Indo-European *r??-, *r?g- (“to care, help”). Cognate with obsolete Dutch roeken, Low German roken, ruken (“to reck, care”), German geruhen (“to deign, condescend”), Icelandic rækja (“to care, regard, discharge”), Danish røgte (“to care, tend”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?k

Verb

reck (third-person singular simple present recks, present participle recking, simple past and past participle recked or (obsolete) rought, raught)

1. (transitive or intransitive, archaic) To make account of; to care for; to heed, regard, consider.
   • 1603, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act 1, Scene 3:

     Ophelia:
     Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
     Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
     Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
     Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
     And recks not his own rede.

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, Chapter 13:

     Little recked he perhaps for what she felt, that dull aching void in her heart sometimes, piercing to the core.

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II, line 50:

     ...with that care lost
     went all his fear: of God, or hell, or worse
     he recked not...

   • 1822, John E. Hall (ed.), The Port Folio, vol. XIV:

     Little thou reck'st of this sad store!

     Would thou might never reck them more!

   • 1900, Ernest Dowson, Villanelle of Marguerite's, lines 10-11:

     She knows us not, nor recks if she enthrall

     With voice and eyes and fashion of her hair […]

2. (transitive or intransitive, archaic, dialectal) To concern, to be important or earnest.

   Hit ne recketh! (= It recks not!)

   • 1637, John Milton, Lycidas:

     What recks it them?

3. (intransitive, obsolete) To think.

Derived terms

• reckful
• reckless

Anagrams

• KREC

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??i?k/

Etymology 1

Compare Icelandic hrekkr, or English wreak vengeance.

Noun

reak (plural reaks)

1. (obsolete) A prank.

   • They play such reaks.

Etymology 2

Compare wrack (“seaweed”).

Noun

reak (plural reaks)

1. A rush.
   • a. 1578, Thomas Drant, A medicinable morall

     Feedes on reaks and reeds.

Anagrams

• KERA, Kear, Kera, Rake, aker, rake