reckon
pronunciation
How to pronounce reckon in British English:
UK [ˈrekən]
How to pronounce reckon in American English:
US [ˈrekən]
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- Verb:
- expect, believe, or suppose
- judge to be probable
- deem to be
- make a mathematical calculation or computation
- have faith or confidence in
- take account of
Word Origin
- reckon
- reckon: [OE] Reckon originally meant ‘give a list of, enumerate, tell’. The sense ‘count’ had developed by the 13th century, and ‘estimate, consider’ emerged in the 14th century. It comes ultimately from a prehistoric West Germanic *rekenōjan, which also produced German rechnen ‘count’ and Dutch rekenen.
- reckon (v.)
- c. 1200, recenen, from Old English gerecenian "to explain, relate, recount," from Proto-Germanic *(ga)rekenojan (cognates: Old Frisian rekenia, Middle Dutch and Dutch rekenen, Old High German rehhanon, German rechnen, Gothic rahnjan "to count, reckon"), from Proto-Germanic *rakina- "ready, straightforward," from PIE *reg- "to move in a straight line," with derivatives meaning "direct in a straight line, rule" (see regal). Intransitive sense "make a computation" is from c. 1300. In I reckon, the sense is "hold an impression or opinion," and the expression, used parenthetically, dates from c. 1600 and formerly was in literary use (Richardson, etc.), but came to be associated with U.S. Southern dialect and was regarded as provincial or vulgar. Related: Reckoned; reckoning.
Example
- 1. Eg. we reckon her among our best reporters .
- 2. Lawyers reckon the process might take three months .
- 3. There we reckon he could afford to have loosened more .
- 4. Engineers reckon they could still be in the air when they are 80 .
- 5. Some academics reckon that voters are simply bad at calculating probabilities .