ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Wrought- work or wreak?

Pao3 — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:06:07 GMT

Good job!:-) I mean I really appreciate your help. Thank you again. That would answer all my other questions I had. (about wrought havoc and wrought iron^^)

Re: Wrought- work or wreak?

Marius Hancu — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:53:48 GMT

It seems things are under dispute

http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/wrought.html
(see the end)
Word Usage


	Wrought is an old past tense and past participle not of wreak (for which the past tense is wreaked) but of work: it is the equivalent of modern worked. Wrought survives mainly as an adjective in a few, rather specialized contexts such as wrought iron; it is seen also in the set phrase What hath God wrought (used by Samuel Morse in the first successful test of the telegraph). Wrought havoc is not correct; it should be wreaked havoc.

-----------------

but I'd take Oxford's view, which is more explicit than Cambridge in this case.

Re: Wrought- work or wreak?

Marius Hancu — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:50:24 GMT

get-->

wreak

â¢ verb 1 cause (a large amount of damage or harm). 2 inflict (vengeance).

â USAGE The past tense of wreak is wreaked, as in rainstorms wreaked havoc yesterday, not wrought. When wrought is used in the phrase wrought havoc, it is in fact an archaic past tense of work.

â ORIGIN Old English, drive (out), avenge; related to WRECK and WRETCH.

Re: Wrought- work or wreak?

Pao3 — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:48:00 GMT

I see. I have Merriam-Webster at home, and I couldn't find there wreak (as 'wrought'). But besides this, it is OK to use 'wrought' as wreak, isn't it.

Re: Wrought- work or wreak?

Marius Hancu — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:43:31 GMT

I think dictionary.com takes the AmE view, as does this one:

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/wrought

and select
wrought
wrought[1]

Re: Wrought- work or wreak?

Pao3 — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:41:39 GMT

I was hoping you would answer:-) I'm most greatful to you. So that note on dictionary.com is deceptive, then.
EDIT:// I haven't seen the last sentence of yours^^ That would explain why there are diferences...

Re: Wrought- work or wreak?

Marius Hancu — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:32:14 GMT

Both correct: wrought or wreaked as past participles for wreak

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=91652&dict=CALD

And wrought is related to work.

dictionary.com

seems to take an AmE view of things in this case.

Wrought- work or wreak?

Pao3 — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:21:50 GMT

Greetings again,
today I've run across a slight problem with meaning of this word 'WROUGHT'. Since I had never seen it before I immediately put it into my Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary to see what it means. It said it is past participle of the word 'WREAK' and that form 'WREAKED' is also possible. Nothing unclear so far, yet, because I didn't know how I should exactly translate it, I had 'wrought' looked up in www.dictionary.com. To my surprise, it found it means 'WORK', with this comment:

'The past tense and past participle of wreak is wreaked, not wrought, which is an alternative past tense and past participle of work.'

And that leads me to my question, How it really is? Does it mean 'work' or 'wreak'? If only wreak was correct how come that CALD would mislead me??

Thank you for your answers in advance.