wrecked havoc

[Offroad]

Dear friends...

What does this blue sentence mean?

It got dark early today!
It wrecked havoc on my garden!

to wreck havoc = make a huge mess, destroy ?

Many thanks

 

[emsr2d2]

Surely the phrase is "to wreak havoc", not "wreck"?!

 

[TheParser]

Dear friends...

What does this blue sentence mean?

It got dark early today!
It wrecked havoc on my garden!

to wreck havoc = make a huge mess, destroy ?

Many thanks

********** NOT A TEACHER **********

Hello, Offroad.

May I most respectfully report that most American "experts"

recommend wreak havoc as the preferred spelling and pronun-

ciation. (wreak -- "reek")

Thank you

 

[birdeen's call]

To add my worthless penny, that's what The American Heritage Dictionary says

Usage Note: Wreak is sometimes confused with wreck, perhaps because the wreaking of damage may leave a wreck: The storm wreaked (not wrecked ) havoc along the coast. The past tense and past participle of wreak is wreaked, not wrought, which is an alternative past tense and past participle of work.

 

[BobK]

:up: A note for word-nerds. The AHD may just have said 'not wrought, which is an alternative past tense and past participle of work', but OED says it's metathetical (swapping sounds around: the OE past of 'work' (dunno what the present was) was wrochte).

'Wrought' exists as a fossil in the collocation 'wrought iron'. It is also familiar from scripture, poetry, and quotations; in fact Samuel B. Morse's first telegraphic message is said to have been 'What hath God wrought?'

b