11 Words for the Wild and Carefree

adjective : sprightly in manner or appearance

When jaunty first came into English use it had the meaning of “genteel” (“having an aristocratic quality or flavor”). Jaunty and genteel (and gentle!) share a root: the French gentil, meaning “of aristocratic birth.” Along the way jaunty became a little less stuffy, and took on the meaning it most often has today: “lively.”

We also seem to get more compliments as a threesome, Zeno for his platinum elegance and jaunty steps and Scotti for his scampiness and sheer friendliness. Scotti will freely accept a hand for petting; Zeno is looking only for a handout.
— Allan Ripp, Chicago Tribune, 14 Jan. 2023

adjective : recklessly and often ostentatiously daring

Daredevil functions both as an adjective, as defined above, and as a noun meaning "a recklessly bold person." Daredevils do daredevil things—like, historically, daring the Devil. The word has a literary history that spans more than 400 years, from Thomas Otway's 1683 play The Atheist ("Daredevil" is the name of the eponymous atheist), to the Marvel superhero first introduced in 1964.

The traveling circus returns to Southwest Florida with more acrobats, motorcycle daredevils and the performing dogs of "America's Got Talent" winner Olate Dogs.
— Charles Runnells, The News Press (Fort Myers, FL), 13 Jan. 2023

adjective : marked by capriciousness, recklessness, or foolishness

Your thinking cap helps you think and your madcap makes you mad—as in "like the Hatter from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," not "angry." Although madcap is more familiar as an adjective, Shakespeare liked the noun version of this word, which in fact never applied to a literal cap, but referred to a madcap person: "Come on, you madcap; I'll to the alehouse with you presently; where, for one shot of five pence, thou shalt have five thousand welcomes" (The Two Gentlemen of Verona). As an adjective the word typically describes schemes and antics and zany movie plots.

Jennifer Baxter looked like a woman with something to celebrate. Resplendent in a madcap sort of way, she wore knee-high, star-spangled socks, a hat festooned with hundreds of sparkling rhinestones and a custom gray T-shirt, designed by her daughter, that posed the question, "Where in the World is Oma?”
— Katherine DeGroff, National Parks, Winter 2022

adjective : blithely unconcerned : carefree

The meaning of happy-go-lucky is apparent in its parts, and develops more layers of meaning if you know some lexical history. Happy in its original use meant "lucky" or "fortunate," and how happy indeed are those who go as the lucky do: happily unconcerned. Herman Melville somewhat unconventionally employed happy-go-lucky as a noun in Moby Dick: "Stubb was the second mate…. A happy-go-lucky; neither craven nor valiant; taking perils as they came with an indifferent air…. Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his whale-boat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests."

'Godspell' (1973) One hippie Jesus not enough for you? Why not two? This one, derived from the Broadway show, was more a happy-go-lucky street clown.
— Jim Beckerman, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), 9 Apr. 2023

adjective : foolishly adventurous and bold : rash

Foolhardy looks like an English word (and it is, of course), but it made its way into the language more than 700 years ago from Old French, from fol hardi, a joining together of fol, meaning "foolish," and hardi, meaning "bold, brave." The word hardy itself comes from hardi; its original meaning is "bold, brave," but it now most often describes plants and people able to endure difficulties.

Owing partly to their proximity in age, and partly to Maeve and Jimmy’s foolhardy habit of inviting us over for dinner most Sundays, he’s come to think of them as cousin-siblings, and their friendship has been a delight.
— Séamas O’Reilly, The Observer (London, Eng.), 9 Apr. 2023

noun : An individual who exhibits viscerontonia

The above is one of those definitions that take a little bit of unpacking (some definitions just just work that way). Viscerotonia is “a pattern of temperament that is marked by predominance of social over intellectual or physical factors and exhibits conviviality, tolerance, complacency, and love of food.” So with that picture in your head, when we say that someone is a viscerotonic we’re pretty sure you know exactly the kind of person we’re talking about.

Another conspicuous viscerotonic trait is love of polite company, with which goes a great love of eating in company, an almost religious feeling for the social meal as a kind of sacrament.
— Aldous Huxley, Harper’s Magazine, 1 Nov. 1944

adjective : free from care : lighthearted

Our carefree lightsome (which also means "airy, nimble") takes its meaning from the weight-related meaning of light, but there is another lightsome, meaning "bright" or "giving light," which comes from the bright and shiny light. Yes, you heard us correctly: the not-dark light and the not-heavy light are etymologically distinct. Both are indirectly from Latin: the first is related to lucēre, which also gave us lucid and translucent; the second is related to levis, which also gave us levity.

An impressive first-half set from singer-songwriter Kim Carnie, saw her deliver both Gaelic traditional material and her own songs in English with lightsome poise and articulation, also accompanied by a sizeable ensemble and strings, including fiddler Megan Henderson and saxophonist Matt Carmichael.
— Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman, (Edinburgh, Sc.), 4 Feb. 2023

adjective : having or showing reckless disregard for safety or personal welfare

The adjective kamikaze has its origin in a weather event: in the 13th century, Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor of China, tried to conquer Japan by sending out great fleets of ships—on two separate occasions. Both times, the efforts were thwarted by storms, which the Japanese took to be protection from the gods. They dubbed their inclement salvation kamikaze, "divine wind." Six and a half centuries later, during World War II, Japanese members of a special air corps assigned to make suicidal crashes on targets were called kamikaze, after the storms that had saved the country from their 13th century would-be invaders. English speakers readily adopted both the noun, which refers to those Japanese pilots or the planes they flew, and the adjective, which can describe kamikaze pilots or people or things having or showing reckless disregard for safety or personal welfare.

Sometimes, it was the breath jolted out of him by another kamikaze leap into a pack, one time to meet the ball, the next to follow its flight into the maw of an oncoming stampede.
— Greg Baum, The Age (Melbourne, Aus.), 1 Aug. 2017

adjective : buoyantly or recklessly carefree or foolish : happy-go-lucky

Slaphappy sounds misleadingly lighthearted: while it's used to describe the carefree and happy-go-lucky, its origin is in a brain injury. When slaphappy was first used in the early-mid 20th century it was used synonymously with punch-drunk to describe those affected with or exhibiting chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition most often associated with athletes such as boxers and football players.

Satisfying hit films have been a hallmark of 2022, from the inventive, slaphappy comedy-action film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” which earned $74 million at the box office, to the rousing thrills of “Top Gun: Maverick,” and the absurdly entertaining Baz Luhrmann biopic “Elvis.”
— Felicia Feaster, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 16 Dec. 2022

adjective : lightheartedly unconcerned : nonchalant

Those who are insouciant are undisturbed—a feature of the word carried over from its etymology. Insouciant comes from French, from in- and soucier, meaning "to trouble, disturb." The Latin sollicitare is the source of that French term (via Old French); it's also the source of solicit, which is most often used to mean "to ask for (something) from people, companies, etc."

With deceptively delicate linework and pop-art pastels, Skelly draws her characters—bewitching, twiggy figures—as insatiable and inscrutable, alluring specters with no time for nonsense but plenty for whimsy. Their insouciant coolness belies the fires raging inside; these encounters are hot stuff.
— Publishers Weekly, 10 Apr. 2023