Difference between revisions of "Work - wreak"

Revision as of 16:49, 21 March 2013

The two verbs 'to work' and 'to wreak are sometimes confused, particularly in the set phraseS '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 part 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 'wrought havoc 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:

• work Old English wyrcan, Old Saxon workian or wirkian , Old High German wurchen

(Middle High German wurken , würken , worhte , geworht , gewürket ), Old Norse yrkja , orta , ortr , Gothic waurkjan , waurhta , -waurhts < Old Germanic *wurkjan , *wur χt- ; (2) Old English (Mercian) wircan , = Old Frisian werkia , wirza , wrochte , wrocht , Old Saxon , war(a)hta , war(a)ht , Old High German wirchen , warahta (Middle High German wirken , warhte , German wirken ; wirkte , gewirkt ), Old Norse verkja , virkja to feel pain < Old Germanic *werkjan , *war χt- (*wur χt- ). A third Old English type represented by late wercan , weorc(e)an seems to point to early influence of the n. we(o)rc (see work n.) upon the vowel of the v.

Other Germanic forms are Old Frisian werka , Old Saxon -werkon , (-werkot ), (Middle) Dutch, Middle (Low German) werken , (wrochte , etc.), Old High German werchôn (Middle High German werchen , werken ), Old Norse verka (-að ) in certain technical uses, orka to manage, effect, contrive (Swedish verka to do, perform, virka to crochet, Danish virke to operate, act, weave, etc.).

The Indo-European base worg- , werg- , wrg- is represented outside Germanic by Avestan vərəzyeiti he works, Greek ἔρδω ( < *wergjō ), ῥέζω ( < *wrgjō ) I do, perfect ἔοργα , ὄργανον organ n.1, ὄργιον orgy n., Old Irish fairged they made, do-fairci prepares, and the forms s.v. wark n.1, wark v., and work n.

wreak Common Germanic: Old English wrecan strong verb (wræc , wrǽcon , wrecen ), = Old Frisian wreka (West Frisian wrekke ), Old Saxon wrekan (Middle Low German and Low German, Middle Dutch and Dutch wreken ; also Low German wräken ), Old High German rëchan , rëhhan (Middle High German rechen , German rächen ), Old Norse and Icelandic reka (Norwegian reka ; Swedish vräka ), Gothic wrikan (to persecute), < the Germanic stem wrek- , pre-Germanic *wreg- , cognate with that of Latin urgÄ“re . Compare wrack v.1, wreche v., wreck v.2, also awreak v., bewreak v.