Can you "wreak" anything other than havoc?
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occ (
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November 8th, 2006
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Yes, you can wreak vengence
interesting. you're right. I never thought of that.
where does the word "wreak" come from and why does it only mean to create bad things?
It's an Old English word and it's original archaic meaning is to take vengeance for; avenge. I don't know why, but that's what it means.
Interestingly, the origin of the word "havoc" is Germanic & means "plundering". So....the two together are pretty devastating.
but if the past participle is wrought then why do we have wrought iron fences?
The fences are made of iron that was "wrought". The past participle is used to describe what was, in the past, done to the iron to make the fence, it does not describe a present attribute of the fence.
GRAND answers!
For what it's worth, the past participle of wreak is actually "wreaked." "Wrought" is the (archaic) past participle of work.
You can wreak mischief or disaster, probably also calamity or Armeggedon.
Remember "What hath God wrought"? How would you read that? What has God formed? Made?
Designed?
I read that as "What has God let go bad in the fridge."
you can wreak tea apparently
You can also wreak terror, damage or harm. To wreak is pretty much always a bad thing.
can you rend something other than asunder?
You can also rend in twain (cut something/someone in half)
rend is similar to “violently tear”. Carnivores can rend flesh, as can weapons. Explosions can rend, well anything, and lightning can rend trees.
How come there’s such a thing as being vigorous but not vimmous?
If being disgruntled is bad, then what is being gruntled? Sounds positively ghastly.
You can also reek havoc, can’t you? Teenage boys in closed cars do this when they take their shoes off and cause a wreck, or a wrack.
JUST KIDDING! Copyeditors see some marvelous variations on this phrase, especially when wreaking legibility on a hunter’s writing.
You can wreak of an odor. Heh heh…
wreak chaos. But it’s all so similar, it’s not even worth it.
You can wreak mayhem and destruction but don’t those basically mean the same as havoc?
You can rend fat to make solid fat liquid, like pork fat or other meats that are fatty.
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Isn’t that render fat?
Or are the two related?
One can “wreak” vengeance.
—If two or more are wreaking, would that constitute a “wreaking crew”?
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