Reek - wreak

Reek and wreak are homophones. Don't confuse them!

• Reek can be a noun or a verb.
  • A reek (noun) was first a common Germanic word for 'smoke' (it is cognate with modern German Rauch. It became used for smoke and any similar emissions, such as steam, or a puff of tobacco, and then became linked to fumes such as the emissions and odours of bodies. This gave rise to the strongest current meaning 'a smell', particularly an unpleasant one.
  • A homograph, rare' after 17th century, says OED, means 'seaweed', particularly in the non-count form of the mass.
  • Another homograph, usually in the plural form, is an Irish term for 'hill', or (as in The Reeks, a ramge of hills - famously in Macgillicuddy's Reeks, a range in County Kerry, which forms the title of a clan chieftain of the area Macgillicuddy of the Reeks
• The verb 'to reek' similarly means 'to discharge smoke'; 'to emit vapour', for example in the steam from freshly spilled blood, as in "Now, whil'st your purpled hands do reeke and smoke, Fulfill your pleasure" (Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1623) III i 159); or 'to stink'.

• • • • The substantive Reekie may be seen in the familiar local nickname for Edinburgh, Auld Reekie. This dates back to the days when the city could be distinguished from far away by the pall of smoke from its coal fires, and when its stonework was almost universally blackened by the smoke and soot.