The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wreak \Wreak\ (r[=e]k), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wreaked (r[=e]kt);
p. pr. & vb. n. Wreaking.] [OE. wreken to revenge, punish,
drive out, AS. wrecan; akin to OFries. wreka, OS. wrekan to
punish, D. wreken to avenge, G. r[aum]chen, OHG. rehhan,
Icel. reka to drive, to take vengeance, Goth. wrikan to
persecute, Lith. vargas distress, vargti to suffer distress,
L. urgere to drive, urge, Gr. e'i`rgein to shut, Skr. v[.r]j
to turn away. Cf. Urge, Wreck, Wretch.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To revenge; to avenge. [Archaic]
[1913 Webster]
He should wreake him on his foes. --Chaucer.
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Another's wrongs to wreak upon thyself. --Spenser.
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Come wreak his loss, whom bootless ye complain.
--Fairfax.
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2. To inflict or execute, especially in vengeance or passion;
to hurl or drive; as, to wreak vengeance on an enemy; to
wreak havoc.
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Note: The word wrought is sometimes assumed to be the past
tense of wreak, as the phrases
wreak havoc and
wrought havoc are both commonly used. In fact,
wrought havoc is not as common as
wreaked havoc. Whether wrought is considered as the past
tense of wreak or of work,
wrought havoc has essentially the same meaning.
Etymologically, however, wrought is only the past tense of
work.
[PJC]
On me let Death wreak all his rage. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
Now was the time to be avenged on his old enemy, to
wreak a grudge of seventeen years. --Macaulay.
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But gather all thy powers,
And wreak them on the verse that thou dost weave.
--Bryant.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wrought \Wrought\,
imp. & p. p. of Work; as, What hath God wrought?.
[1913 Webster]
Note: In 1837, Samuel F. B. Morse, an American artist,
devised a working electric telegraph, based on a rough
knowledge of electrical circuits, electromagnetic
induction coils, and a scheme to encode alphabetic
letters. He and his collaborators and backers
campaigned for years before persuading the federal
government to fund a demonstration. Finally, on May 24,
1844, they sent the first official long-distance
telegraphic message in Morse code, "What hath God
wrought," through a copper wire strung between
Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland. The phrase
was taken from the Bible, Numbers 23:23. It had been
suggested to Morse by Annie Ellworth, the young
daughter of a friend. --Library of Congress, American
Memories series
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may24.html).
[PJC]
Alas that I was wrought [created]! --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The word wrought is sometimes assumed to be the past
tense of wreak, as the phrases
wreak havoc and
wrought havoc are both commonly used. In fact,
wrought havoc is not as common as
wreaked havoc. Whether wrought is considered as the past
tense of wreak or of work,
wrought havoc has essentially the same meaning, encouraging
the confusion. Etymologically, however, wrought is only
the past tense of work.
[PJC]
Wrought and wreaked havoc
Recently, we mentioned that something had wreaked
havoc with our PC. We were fairly quickly corrected
by someone who said, "Shouldn't that be wrought
havoc?" The answer is no, because either wreaked or
wrought is fine here. A misconception often arises
because wrought is wrongly assumed to be the past
participle of wreak. In fact wrought is the past
participle of an early version of the word work!
Wreak comes from Old English wrecan "drive out,
punish, avenge", which derives ultimately from the
Indo-European root *wreg- "push, shove, drive, track
down". Latin urgere "to urge" comes from the same
source, giving English urge. Interestingly, wreak is
also related to wrack and wreck. The phrase wreak
havoc was first used by Agatha Christie in 1923.
Wrought, on the other hand, arose in the 13th
century as the past participle of wirchen, Old
English for "work". In the 15th century worked came
into use as the past participle of work, but wrought
survived in such phrases as finely-wrought,
hand-wrought, and, of course, wrought havoc . . . .
Havoc, by the way, comes from Anglo-French havok,
which derived from the phrase crier havot "to cry
havoc". This meant "to give the army the order to
begin seizing spoil, or to pillage". It is thought
that this exclamation was Germanic in origin, but
that's all that anyone will say about it! The
destruction associated with pillaging came to be
applied metaphorically to havoc, giving the word its
current meaning.
--The
Institute for
Etymological
Research and
Education
(http://www.takeourword.com/Issue048.html)
[PJC]