Work - wreak
From Hull AWE
The two verbs 'to work' and 'to wreak' are sometimes confused, particularly in the set phrase 'to wreak havoc'. This is something of a cliché, but remains of value in writing.
- The verb 'to wreak' means, loosely, 'to cause [something harmful]', 'to inflict,[damage] upon'. The other set phrase sometimes to be seen is 'to wreak vengeance on', 'to inflict retaliatory harm upon'. In neither of these phrases is the verb 'to work' an acceptable substitute for wreak.
- Beware also the typing error 'wreck'.
- A subsidiary problem is that the past tense form wrought, which is properly the past tense of 'to work', has been adopted - wrongly - by some writers as a past tense form of 'to wreak', which it is not. (It seems that some writers, having chosen to replace 'wreak' by 'work' in 'to w***k havoc', have also used the past form of 'work' instead of that of 'wreak', which is wreaked.)
You are advised not to write 'work havoc on', nor 'wroughthavoc on'.
- (You may like to see also AWE's pages on the forms of the irregular verb 'to wreak'; the meaning of wrought, and current academic usage; and the homophones reek and wreak, with some possible typographical errors.)
- Etymological note: the two verbs work and wreak, though both Germanic in origin (and both containing the consonants 'w-', '-r-' and '-k', or other palatal consonant) are not related. OED gives their etymologies (here abbreviated) as:
- 'to work' was the Old English verb wyrcan, from the Old Saxon workian or wirkian, descending from an Old Germanic word hypothetically reconstructed as wurkjan. Work is paralleled in West Germanic languages by wurken, würken in Middle High German and wirken in modern German; werkia in Old Frisian werken in Dutch and Middle (Low German); in North Germanic by Old Norse yrkja, Swedish verka and Danish virke; and in East Germanic by Gothic waurkjan.
- The Indo-European base worg- , werg- , wrg- is represented outside Germanic by Avestan verezyeiti 'he works', Greek ἔρδω [erdō] 'I do', (perfect ἔοργα [eorga]) , ὄργανον [organon] 'organ', and ὄργιον [orgion] 'orgy'; Old Irish fairged 'they made', do-fairci 'prepares'.
- 'to work' was the Old English verb wyrcan, from the Old Saxon workian or wirkian, descending from an Old Germanic word hypothetically reconstructed as wurkjan. Work is paralleled in West Germanic languages by wurken, würken in Middle High German and wirken in modern German; werkia in Old Frisian werken in Dutch and Middle (Low German); in North Germanic by Old Norse yrkja, Swedish verka and Danish virke; and in East Germanic by Gothic waurkjan.
- Etymological note: the two verbs work and wreak, though both Germanic in origin (and both containing the consonants 'w-', '-r-' and '-k', or other palatal consonant) are not related. OED gives their etymologies (here abbreviated) as:
- 'to wreak' was Old English strong verb wrecan, from the Common Germanic. It is paralleled by wreka in Old Frisian and wrekke in West Frisian; Old Saxon wrekan in Middle Low German and Low German, wreken in Dutch and wräken in Low German. The w- appears after the Old High German rächan or rähhan, which becomes rechen in Middle High German and rächen in modern German; in North Germanic reka in Old Norse and Icelandic, and the modern reka in Norwegian and vräka; Gothic had wrikan ('to persecute'). The Germanic stem wrek- and pre-Germanic hypotheical wreg- are cognate with that of Latin urgēre.
