This week’s theme
Fossil words

This week’s words
fettle
kilter
wreak

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(reek)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To cause or inflict.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old English wrecan (to drive out or avenge). Earliest documented use: before 1150.

NOTES:

When people wreak something, it’s usually havoc. Occasionally vengeance, sometimes destruction. The result might be a wreck, but it’s never “to wreck havoc”. It’s also used exclusively in the negative, as you don’t wreak peace or order.

USAGE:

“People with money to burn can buy their way up the ladder [in video games], hard work be damned. It seems hypercapitalism, having already wreaked havoc on the real world, has come for the world of play.”
Clive Thompson; Insert Credit Card to Continue; Mother Jones (San Francisco, California); May/Jun 2023.

See more usage examples of wreak in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: