Talk:wrought

Metal products

The word is still widely used in the description and specification of metal products. It is not archaic. Metal products that are formed into shape in the solid state, such as rolled, stamped, cold-formed material are called wrought products. The alternative is cast products or 'as cast'.

Not a Past Tense of Wreak

I hav two problems here: 1. 2, Simple past tense and past participle of wreak which is wrong per the Oxford Dict. Online (wreak) and M-W (wrought) which only has it as the past tense of work, not wreak. And, 2. then in the usage note it states: In a past tense verbal sense, wrought has come to be used as a past tense of wreak more often than work (it wrought havoc). That's not right for that work havoc is also a set phrase (per the Oxford Dict. Online, wreak)) which states:

The phrase wrought havoc, as in they wrought havoc on the countryside, is an acceptable variant of wreaked havoc. Here, wrought is an archaic past tense of work. It is not, as is sometimes assumed, a past tense of wreak.

I did an ngram on wreak havoc and work havoc and, or many years, work havoc topp'd "wreak havoc". Along with the aforemention'd quote from the Oxford Dict. Online, I found this by M-W:

I also found sundry byspels of "work havoc" in Google Books. Anyway, it all points to that it is not a past tense for wreak (at least not in the witt of wrought havoc). Thus I hav taken that off. I rewrote the rest of the usage to not be so opinionated. If I want to write, "Yesterday I wrought the metal before I welded it on the truck", that is grammatically fine; maybe a little odd but likely not to a metal worker. --AnWulf ... Ferþu Hal! (talk) 20:05, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

wrought havoc

Following the usage note, is wrought havoc archaic or dated, but not proscribed? --Backinstadiums (talk) 18:53, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

Nothing is noted here, but if a speaker intends wrought as a past tense of wreak, it would probably be proscribed on the grounds that wrought has never been a standard past form of wreak. Tharthan (talk) 19:28, 23 June 2021 (UTC)