Rowan said:

And then there's wreak; I wince when I hear "wreaked" instead of "wrought" but that's my Oz version of pedantry for you.

I, too, used to think that "wrought" was the past tense of "to wreak", but the two words are unrelated.   I looked them up (that's when the trouble starts):


To wreak (third-person singular simple present wreaks, present participle wreaking, simple past wreaked or rarely wroke, past participle wreaked or rarely wroken)

   1. (transitive) To cause, inflict or let out, especially if causing harm or injury.

          The earthquake wreaked havoc in the city.
          She wreaked her anger on his car.

   2. (archaic) To inflict or take vengeance on.
          * 1856-1885 — Alfred Tennyson, Gareth and Lynette

                Kill the foul thief, and wreak me for my son.


But "wrought" is defined as:

wrought

   1. Simple past tense and past participle of work.

Note that the cognate "-wright" (as it appears in words like shipwright, millwright, wheelwright) is one who works in a particular field, named by the first element in the word. Thus, I suppose you'd gloss them as "shipworker" etc. Actually it seems to be more of a "-builder" or "-maker".

I have to confess that I find myself uncomfortable with "wreaked" as the past tense of "to wreak", mainly out of old habit I suppose. But the definitions and etymology rule, so I shudder and bear it.

Dave Oesterreich