Reckless means acting wildly without a thought for the danger. Reckless driving, a reckless decision, utterly reckless.
In law, recklessness is a precise state of mind between intention and negligence: a reckless person sees the risk and goes ahead anyway. That distinction decides which offence is charged. Reckless driving and reckless endangerment are named offences. Note reckless with, meaning careless of something valuable — reckless with money, reckless with other people's time; and that reck, the verb it comes from, is entirely obsolete.
1adjectiverecklessActing wildly without thought for the danger.
“It was a reckless decision and it very nearly worked.”
reckless is a quality of disregarding danger.
Also accepted in games: rash
Old English reccelas is built from reccan, to care, plus -less. The verb reck died out completely, leaving reckless as a word with a negative ending and nothing positive to attach to.
Old English
rēċelēas
Middle English
rekles
English, today
reckless
From Middle English rekles, from Old English rēċelēas. From Middle English rekles, reckeles, rekkeles, (also recheles), from Old English rēcelēas (“reckless, careless, negligent”), equivalent to reck + less. Cognate with West Frisian roekeleas (“reckless”), Dutch roekeloos (“reckless”), German Low German ruuklos (“careless”), German ruchlos (“careless, notorious”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA