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OK, I'll bite: what's wrong with the phrase wreck and ruin?
I always thought "wreck and ruin" was a malapropism. From the Oxford American Dictionary (2005): PHRASES
go to rack (or wrack) and ruin gradually deteriorate in condition because of neglect: fall into disrepair. [ORIGIN: rack from Old English wræc [vengeance] ; related to wreak.] USAGE The relationship between the forms rack and wrack is complicated. The most common noun sense of rack, ‘a framework for holding and storing things,’ is always spelled rack, never wrack. The figurative senses of the verb, deriving from the type of torture in which someone is stretched on a rack, can, however, be spelled either rack or wrack: thus,: racked with guilt or | wracked with guilt; | rack your brains or | wrack your brains. In addition, the phrase | rack and ruin can also be spelled | wrack and ruin .
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PHRASES
go to rack (or wrack) and ruin gradually deteriorate in condition because of neglect: fall into disrepair. [ORIGIN: rack from Old English wræc [vengeance] ; related to wreak.]
yeah, don't go wrecking no vengeance. - joe (but please don't wreck havoc) friday
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I always thought "wreck and ruin" was a malapropism.
The interesting thing is that wrack and ruin is a set phrase, and I'm not sure that wreck and ruin is not synonymous. Many object to rack and ruin, under the impression that rack as a noun means a instrument of torture or something to hang one's hat on, but, as I said in my reply to tsuwm's explanation, wreck and ruin have been being used for at least a century and a half. What if I wanted to use the compound kith and sib (or the punning kith and cousin) rather than irreversible binomial kith and kin (i.e., friend and relative)? Would that be incorrect or a malapropism? Wreck and ruin is not quite the same thing as using wreck for wreak as in havoc.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Wreck and ruin is not quite the same thing as using wreck for wreak as in havoc.
I wreckon not.
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Oh we're splitting hares.
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[squawk!] Gary Martin also needs a better editor (see my post about the banned words list), to get the lead out.
Wreck and ruin: I don't know, maybe it's a cross between a malapropism and an eggcorn; but whichever or whatever it is is less important than the fact that it's just a plain misspelling! Grr! Some things are just facts, such as that the year 2000 was not the beginning of the new century, and that wrack is the correct spelling in this phrase!!
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