wreak

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wreken,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English wrecan (“to drive, drive out, punish, avenge”),^[5][3][6] a class V strong verb with past wræc and past participle wrecen,^[7][8] inherited from Proto-Germanic *wrekaną (“to pursue”).^[9][10][5] It is cognate with Old Frisian wreka, Old Saxon wrekan, Dutch wreken, Old High German rehhan, German rächen (“to avenge”), Old Norse reka (“to drive, push, avenge”) and Gothic 𐍅𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (wrikan, “to persecute”).^[8][5][11] The Germanic stem goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wreg- (“to push, press, drive”),^{[5][11][8][12]} which also gave Latin urgeō (“to press, drive”),^[8][5][11] probably Ancient Greek εἴργω (eírgō, “to shut in”)^[11][13][14] and, according to Barnhart, Lithuanian vargti (“to suffer distress”).^[5] Etymonline writes the root *urgh- and calls the link only possible.^[7] Kroonen reconstructs *(H)urég-e- and thinks the verb probably already had a legal connotation in Proto-Indo-European.^[9] The noun is inherited from Middle English wreke, which Merriam-Webster Unabridged derives from the verb.^[3] The OED instead takes it as an early northern variant of wreche, later probably replacing that word or wrake under the verb's influence,^[8] and the Shorter Oxford as a variant of wrack assimilated to the verb.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To drive out, punish, avenge: about 725, in Beowulf, by Barnhart's dating.^[5] The OED's earliest quotation for the basic sense "to drive, force to move" comes from an Old English glossary,^[8][6] and the sense "to give vent to anger" also has an Old English record, in Genesis.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline says that the sense "drive" is not attested after Old English,^[7] but the Middle English Dictionary and the OED still have the verb for casting out and banishing,^[2][8] the latter recorded to 1400.^[8] Meanwhile the senses of venting anger and of punishing grew: venting it on a person is recorded from about 1175, in the Ormulum, and became frequent from about 1560.^[8] Chaucer has wreken 28 times for wreaking vengeance or anger, and Gower 18 times for avenging.^[15] Punishing a person lasted until 1658.^[8] Barnhart and Etymonline date inflicting or taking vengeance to the late 15th century (Barnhart about 1489),^[5][7] and Johnson (1755) gave "to revenge" first, then "to execute any violent design", which he says is the current sense.^[16] The modern sense of causing damage or destruction grew out of inflicting vengeance and is first recorded in 1817, in Shelley,^[5][7] and wreak havoc is attested by 1837.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 725 – to drive out, punish, avenge, in Beowulf.^[5]
• c. 1175 – to vent anger on a person, in the Ormulum.^[8]
• before 1300 – noun, an act of taking vengeance (obsolete by 1626).^[8]
• before 1325 – to cast something out of a place (now obsolete).^[8]
• c. 1330 – noun, in the phrase take wreak.^[8]
• c. 1340 – noun, vengeance, revenge.^[8]
• c. 1440 – to injure or harm a person (obsolete by 1670).^[8]
• c. 1489 – to inflict or take vengeance.^[5]
• before 1542 – noun, harm, injury (obsolete by 1598).^[8]
• before 1586 – to bestow or spend on someone.^[8]
• 1590 – reflexive, of a feeling, to find expression.^[8]
• 1817 – to inflict or cause damage or destruction.^[5][7]
• 1837 – wreak havoc.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To inflict or cause damage or disorder, as in wreak havoc: The flood wreaked ruin across the valley.^[17][5][7]
2. To inflict or exact vengeance or punishment.^[17][3]
3. To give vent to anger, hatred or the like; to gratify such a feeling.^[17][8]
4. (archaic) To avenge a person or take vengeance for a wrong.^[17][3]
5. (obsolete, Old English–1658) To punish a person.^[8][18]
6. (obsolete, Old English–1400) To drive out or banish.^[8][2]

Noun

1. (archaic) Revenge, vengeance.^[3][13][8]
2. (obsolete, 1542–1598) Harm, injury.^[8][13]

Word family

• wreaker

Related words

• wreck
• wrack
• wretch
• urge
• rack
• wrought

Usage notes

Weekley notes that modern writers sometimes wrongly use wreak as if it were the present tense of wrought,^[14] and archaic past forms wroke and wroken are recorded beside wreaked.^[13] In northern English, Yorkshire and Worcestershire dialect a verb wreak meant to fret or be uneasy; the English Dialect Dictionary compares reach.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
19. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)