wræcan

Wræcan is an Old English verb meaning to torment, afflict, harass, or oppress. In religious, legal, and heroic texts, it describes causing severe pain or punishment to a person or thing, or bringing ruin upon someone. The word expresses both physical and moral suffering and is frequently used in figurative senses, such as troubling the mind or conscience.

Etymology and descendants: Wræcan derives from a Proto-Germanic root connected with punishment and suffering; cognates appear in other early Germanic languages (for instance, Old High German wrechen 'to avenge/ punish' and related forms in later English). The term is the historical source of the modern English verbs wreck and wrack, though these descendants have developed senses of damage or destruction that are not always parallel to the Old English meaning.

Usage and attestation: Wræcan occurs in surviving Old English literature from the early medieval period, including poetic and legal contexts. It is characterized as a verb of transitive force, often taking a direct object or a dative of person affected; its participial and verbal form(s) reflect the typical pattern of Old English verbs, and it appears in various inflected forms across dialects and texts.

Modern status: The form wræcan is obsolete in contemporary English. The word survives in scholarly discussions and in etymological dictionaries as the ancestor of the modern terms wreck and wrack, with the latter occasionally appearing in poetic or archaic usage and the former as the dominant sense of destruction in modern English.