reck

Etymology

From Middle English recken, rekken, reken, from Old Norse rœkja (compare Old English rēċċan, rēċan (“to care, reck, take care of, be interested in, care for, desire”); whence English retch), from Proto-Germanic *rōkijaną (“to care, take care”), from Proto-Indo-European *rēǵ-, *rēg- (“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”), Swedish rykta (“to groom”).

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive, intransitive, archaic) To take account of (someone or something); to care for; to consider, to heed, to regard.
   Little thou reck'st of this sad store! Would thou might never reck them more! 1822, John E. Hall, editor, The Port Folio, volume XIV
   She recks not now, as of old, whether her word carries with it the sting or the sweet—it is not now in her thought to ask whether pain or pleasure follows the thoughtless slight or the scornful pleasantry. The victim suffers, but she recks not of his grief. 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XI, page 136
   She knows us not, nor recks if she enthrall With voice and eyes and fashion of her hair […] 1900, Ernest Dowson, Villanelle of Marguerite's, lines 10–11
2. (transitive, intransitive, archaic, dialectal) To concern (someone); to be important or earnest.
   Hit ne recketh! (= It recks not!)
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To think.