care

The root care is native English, from Old English caru, and its first meaning was darker than today's: 'sorrow, grief, anxiety, a heavy burden on the mind.' To be full of care once meant to be weighed down with worry. You can still hear that old sense in careworn (worn out by worry) and in the phrase 'without a care in the world' — free of any burden.

Over time the meaning softened and split. Worry about someone became looking after them; the anxious sense became the attentive sense. That is the whole story of this family: from worrying to caring for.

The modern senses fan out:

- care (n.): attention, caution, protective responsibility — handle with care
- care (v.): to feel concern (I don't care), or to look after (care for the sick)
- -less (without) gives careless: without attention — done with no caution
- -ful (full of) gives careful: full of attention — its opposite
- -ly turns these into adverbs: carelessly, carefully

As a building block, care joins easily with what is being looked after:

- health + care gives healthcare: the looking-after of health, the whole medical system
- child + care gives childcare: the looking-after of children
- and as a coined program name, medi(cal) + care gives Medicare: government 'care' built on the medical word, twinned with Medicaid

Notice the two faces still living side by side. The old anxious sense survives in careful and careless (about caution); the warm sense drives healthcare and care for (about looking after). One word holds both 'be careful' and 'I care about you' — caution and kindness, two children of the same Old English worry.