Carefree means free of worry and responsibility. A carefree childhood, carefree days, young and carefree.
The care in it is the old sense meaning worry rather than looking after somebody. It is nearly always used about the past, since carefree is a thing people notice they were only once it has ended.
1adjectivecarefreeFree of worry and responsibility.
“We spent a carefree summer swimming in the lake and sleeping under the stars.”
carefree is a quality.
Middle English
care
English
care
English, today
carefree
Built from
From care + -free. care comes from Middle English care. From Middle English care, from Old English caru, ċearu (“care, concern, anxiety, sorrow, grief, trouble”), from Proto-West Germanic karu, from Proto-Germanic karō (“care, sorrow, cry”), from Proto-Indo-European ǵeh₂r- (“shout, call”). Cognate with Old Saxon cara, kara (“concern, action”), Middle High German kar (“sorrow, lamentation”), Icelandic kör (“sickbed”), Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐍂𐌰 (“concern, care”). Related also to Dutch karig (“scanty”), German karg (“sparse, meagre, barren”), Latin garriō, Ancient Greek γῆρυς. See also chary.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA