wrought= wreaked?

[Mher]

Hi, my dear language instructors. Given the context, can we equalize the meanings of these two verbs - wrought and wreaked?

"They were fearfully — they were inconceivably hideous; but out of Evil proceeded Good; for their very excess wrought in my spirit an inevitable revulsion."

I take the last part of the sentence to mean "...their very excess made an inevitable and sudden change in my spirit."
(http://poestories.com/read/premature)

 

[Raymott]

"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."
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wreak

 

[Mher]

"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."
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wreak

Anyway, I find it difficult to figure out what "work" can connote here? Do you agree with my interpretation, Raymott?

 

[Mrfatso]

Try created instead as a synonym for wrought.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wrought

The end of the passage "inevitable revulsion", also means that the change in his spirt was one that made him feel an automatic disgust at their hideousness.

 

[probus]

Hi, my dear language instructors. Given the context, can we equalize the meanings of these two verbs - wrought and wreaked?

"They were fearfully — they were inconceivably hideous; but out of Evil proceeded Good; for their very excess wrought in my spirit an inevitable revulsion."

I take the last part of the sentence to mean "...their very excess made an inevitable and sudden change in my spirit."
(http://poestories.com/read/premature)

They are not equivalent in meaning. The verb wreak implies the destruction of a ship at sea. Wrought, on the other hand, is just an archaic usage for made or done or did. What god hath wrought is the same as what god has done, or has made, or did.

 

[Raymott]

Anyway, I find it difficult to figure out what "work" can connote here? Do you agree with my interpretation, Raymott?

No, I don't agree. That's why I posted the excerpt explaining that wreaked doesn't mean wrought.
'Work' can mean 'make'. 'Wrought' isn't often used. It's found in a lot of religious text, such as "What hath God wrought?" = "Was has God worked?" He may have worked miracles; he may have worked destruction, etc.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Right. Wrought is the old past-tense of work. Today we say worked. It has nothing to do with wreaked (which, as has been stated, has nothing to do with wrecked).

Wrought, wreaked, and wrecked have nothing to do with each other.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Anyway, I find it difficult to figure out what "work" can connote here? Do you agree with my interpretation, Raymott?

Raymott is exactly right. Their excess worked on his spirit. It had an effect. It caused revulsion.