Etymology

wreak

W4R1E1A1K5

Today it means: To cause harm; to afflict; to inflict; to harm or injure; to let out harm. Full definition →

Middle English wreken ← Old English wrecan ← Proto-West Germanic *wrekan
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

wreak · verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*wreg-“push, shove, drive, track down”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*wrekaną
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*wrekan
  4. Old English · inherited fromwrecan
  5. Middle English · inherited fromwreken
  6. English todaywreak

From Middle English wreken, from Old English wrecan, from Proto-West Germanic *wrekan, from Proto-Germanic *wrekaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wreg- (“push, shove, drive, track down”). Cognate via Proto-Germanic with Dutch wreken, German rächen, Swedish vräka; cognate via PIE with Latin urgēre (English urge), and distantly cognate with English wreck.

wreak · noun2

  1. Middle English · inherited fromwreke
  2. English todaywreak

From Middle English wreke, wrake, Northern Middle English variants of wreche, influenced later by Etymology 1, above. Compare Dutch wraak.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*wrekaną all →

wreckwrack

Proto-Indo-European*wreg- all →

wretchwreckwretchedgarçon

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.