Etymologically
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wreckage

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 23:53. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɹɛkɪdʒ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English wreck + -age.[2][3][4][5][6] The verb wreck comes from the noun, which is from Anglo-Norman wrec, also wrek, from Old Norse *wrek, from the stem of *wrekan (“to drive”), the source of wreak.[2][3] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1121–25, for a shipwreck and for goods cast ashore from it.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action or process of wrecking, or the fact of being wrecked: 1837, in Carlyle's The French Revolution.[2][4] Etymonline dates this sense to 1814,[3] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1830–40.[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the act of wrecking or the state of being wrecked, also figurative.[2][3] The concrete sense, the remains of a wrecked ship, is recorded from 1832 in Etymonline and 1846 in the OED; it was extended from 1874 to the debris of any shattered structure.[3][2] From 1883 it was also used of people whose lives had been wrecked, cast off by society.[2][4]

Timeline

  • 1814 – the fact or process of being wrecked.[3]
  • 1832 – the remains of something wrecked.[3]
  • 1837 – the action of wrecking; the fact of being wrecked.[2][4]
  • 1846 – fragments of a wrecked ship.[2]
  • 1874 – debris of a wrecked building or structure.[2]
  • 1883 – figurative, people whose lives have been wrecked.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The broken remains of something that has been wrecked, such as a ship, car, aircraft or building: Divers searched the wreckage of the ferry.[8][4][2]
  2. The act of wrecking or the state of being wrecked; ruin or destruction, also figurative.[8][4][2]
  3. People whose lives have been ruined and who are cast off by society.[4][2]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins