careless

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English careles, also carles,^[2] inherited from Old English carlēas (“free from care; reckless”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from Old English caru + -lēas,^[3][5][6] the words behind care and -less.^[4][7] The OED takes the Old English word as representing a Germanic type Proto-Germanic *karalaus,^[4] and Etymonline likewise thinks the compound probably goes back to Proto-Germanic, comparing Old Norse kærulauss (“quit, free”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Free from anxiety, and unconcerned or reckless: both senses are Old English.^[4][6] In the poem Exodus the howling wolves are carleasan deor, reckless beasts, and in the Old English Rule of St Benedict the word renders Latin liber (“free”).^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The word first described a state of mind, freedom from worry, and in Middle English also from fear: in the Ancrene Wisse a castle with a water-filled ditch is carles against its enemies.^[2] The MED also records the sense "free, generous" with something.^[2] This older meaning lasted until about the mid-17th century, after which it was archaic or poetic, its place now being taken by carefree.^[6][4] Johnson (1755) still listed "cheerful; undisturbed", quoting Pope's "wisely careless, innocently gay".^[8] Freedom from care then shaded into failure to take care: "not paying due attention" is attested in carelessly by the 1560s, according to Etymonline,^[6] and the OED's first quotation for the adjective is from Lyly's Euphues (1578).^[4] Johnson's first sense runs the two together as "without care; unconcerned; negligent; inattentive".^[8] The word was next applied to things: "uncared for", from Marlowe (before 1593) to 1616,^[4] then "done or said without care", from the 1650s in Etymonline,^[6] and "artless, unstudied", from Steele (1704).^[4] Careless talk was a set phrase of the war of 1939–45.^[4] The noun careless, or careless weed, for an amaranth, comes from the "uncared for" sense.^[5]

Timeline

• Old English – free from care or anxiety; also unconcerned, reckless.^[4][3]
• c. 1225 – Middle English carles, without fear of something, safe from it.^[2]
• 1578 – not taking due care, inattentive, negligent, in Lyly's Euphues.^[4] Etymonline finds this meaning by the 1560s, in carelessly.^[6]
• before 1593 – of things, uncared for, in Marlowe's Hero and Leander (obsolete after 1616).^[4]
• 1650s – done or said heedlessly.^[6]
• 1704 – arranged or uttered without art; unstudied, in Steele.^[4]
• 1812 – used almost as an adverb, in Wilson's Isle of Palms.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not paying enough attention to what one does; negligent: a careless bookkeeper.^[9][10][11]
2. Done or said without enough thought or accuracy: a careless slip in the accounts.^[9][10][11]
3. Not concerned; indifferent, usually with of or about: careless of his own safety.^[9][5][4]
4. Effortless or artless; not studied: She wore the scarf with careless charm.^[9][10][4]
5. (archaic) Free from worry or responsibility; carefree.^[5][4][9]
6. (obsolete, before 1593–1616) Of things, not looked after; uncared for.^[4][5]

Noun

1. Any of several herbs of the genus Amaranthus (amaranth); also called careless weed.^[5]

Word family

• carelessly
• carelessness
• overcareless

Related words

• care
• -less
• carefree

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House