English
wrack
Wrack comes from Middle English wrake ‘vengeance, retribution, revenge’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *wrakō.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wrakōreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150wracu‘revenge’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wrake‘vengeance, retribution, revenge’
- Englishearliest quotation 1575wrack
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wrakōreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150wracu‘revenge’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wrake‘vengeance, retribution, revenge’
- Englishearliest quotation 1575wrack
Earliest quotation: 1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, The Hare, to the Hunter: “The dead mans corps hath made ſome Serpents weépe,…”
Every English word from Proto-Germanic *wrakō
Another origin of wrack
- Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500wrak
- Englishtodaywrack
Late Middle English, from Middle Dutch wrak, ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *wrekaną (‘to drive out’), the source of wreak and wreck.
Today it means
noun The remains of something; a wreck.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *wrakō / wrack