“What’s the word that means ‘careful’ that starts with ‘reck’?”
Stone carving of the animals of the Chinese zodiac at the Qingyanggong temple, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. (Image: Felix Andrews via Wikipedia)
As part of their Chinese New Year celebration last week, The Four-Year-Old’s preschool handed out little cards that explained the various signs of the Chinese zodiac.
Not that there’s anything wrong with being born in the Year of the Pig. It’s just that cats are The Four-Year-Old’s favorite animal. Naturally, she wanted to be born in the Year of the Tiger.
This was the first time The Four-Year-Old had been told that she was born in the year of the Pig, and I don’t think she was that happy about it.
Fortunately, I remembered that she was no mere Pig, but a Golden Pig, which is even luckier. Learning that she was associated with gold had the predictable happy effect, and The Four-Year-Old was ready to learn the qualities of a Pig.
The card her teachers handed out was simple. Under “Good,” it stated that “Pigs will always put others before themselves.” Under “Bad,” it said that “Pigs can be reckless.”
The Four-Year-Old: “What’s reckless?”
After I explained that a reckless person doesn’t always think through the consequences of their actions before they do them, The Four-Year-Old immediately wanted to know:
“What’s the word that means careful that starts with reck?”
Still can’t, as a matter of fact. Can you?
I couldn’t think of any off-hand.
But it turns out that as usual, The Four-Year-Old was on to something. Although today reckless is a word unto itself, it hasn’t always been this way. Once upon a time, reckless was the opposite of reck, an archaic verb that meant “to take heed of or to have caution.”
“Mommyo!” The Four-Year-Old said excitedly, “I could still use it that way!”
Happy (belated) Chinese New Year, y’all.
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4 Responses to ““What’s the word that means ‘careful’ that starts with ‘reck’?””
A good reckoner would be a careful one. Is that close enough?
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I will have to check with my panel of Four-Year-Old judges. Unfortunately she is not speaking to me at the moment bc it’s bath day and she is in hiding. Every once in a while, she takes this whole being a cat thing too seriously.
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