wreak » reek

Chiefly in:   reek havoc

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • High winds coupled with blowing sand produced limited visibility and reeked havoc in Garza County yesterday afternoon. (link)
  • Please do not use this to reek havoc in the 10th floor lab. (link)
  • I, like most, despair that our system, which allows most parties elected to government without a true mandate (ie they don’t have much more than a 40% 1st preference vote which means that most electors didn’t want them in power!), to reek havoc in legislation when elected. (Rob Pillar, Family First Party candidate for Makin, AU)
  • If this teenager wins the case (God forbid) it will be a licence for every trouble making “sacred young,” to reek havoc with complete impunity. (link)
  • In my college years I was on the pill, and my senior year I stopped taking it. As is now more known with PCOD the skin and hair follicles can reek havoc when not regulated, and that year I noticed a few stay hairs on my chin, down my side burns, and the hair above my lip was getting a little darker. (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

The reanalysis is a little hazy in this case. What is clear is that the meaning of reek is becoming obscured. Citing AHD4:

INTRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To smoke, steam, or fume. 2. To be pervaded by something unpleasant: “This document … reeks of self-pity and self-deception” (Christopher Hitchens). 3. To give off or become permeated with a strong unpleasant odor: “Grandma, who reeks of face powder and lilac water” (Garrison Keillor).
TRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To emit or exude (smoke, for example). 2. To process or treat by exposing to the action of smoke.

On the other hand, the verb wreak is now rather rare as well.

Maybe there is a semantic blend involved, with the figurative sense of reek of [something], ie have an aspect suggestive of [something], which rarely invokes the olfactory sense.

See also wreck havoc.

| link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/02/25 |

Commentaries

  1. 1

    Commentary by Arnold Zwicky , 2005/04/20 at 6:31 pm

    Amazingly, the opposite substitution, “reek of” >> “wreak of”, also occurs, but it’s probably just a spelling error. Jacques Guy cited “they wreak of old money” in a sci.lang posting of 11 April 2005. And from a Google search: “The apartments — they wreak of crime, they wreak of drugs and they wreak of prostitution … How uplifting can you get?” (http:/www.gregsopinion.com/archives/004223.html).

Add your commentary

A (valid) e-mail address is required, but it will never be displayed or communicated to anyone without your consent. Comment moderation may be in place and delay posting of your commentary. Please don't re-submit it.

Separate paragraphs by blank lines. You can use the following HTML tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> .

Please remember that comments on entries should add data or pertinent remarks.

(required)

(required)