reckon

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*h₃reǵ-“to make straight or right”
2. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*rekan“swift, ready, prompt”
3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*rekanōn“to count, explain”
4. Old English · inherited fromrecenian“to pay; arrange, dispose, reckon”
5. Middle English · inherited fromrekenen
6. English todayreckon

From Middle English rekenen, from Old English recenian (“to pay; arrange, dispose, reckon”) and ġerecenian (“to explain, recount, relate”); both from Proto-West Germanic *rekanōn (“to count, explain”), from Proto-West Germanic *rekan (“swift, ready, prompt”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to make straight or right”). Cognate with Scots rekkin (“to enumerate, mention, narrate, rehearse, count, calculate, compute”), Saterland Frisian reekenje (“to calculate, figure, reckon”), West Frisian rekkenje (“to account, tally, calculate, figure”), Dutch rekenen (“to count, calculate, reckon, charge”), German Low German reken (“to reckon”), German rechnen (“to count, reckon, calculate”), Danish regne (“to calculate”), Swedish räkna (“to count, calculate, reckon”), Norwegian Nynorsk rekna (“to calculate”), Icelandic reikna (“to calculate”), Latin rectus (“straight, right”). See also reck, reach.

Words from the same roots