Page 1 of 2

WRENCH

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 10:12 am
by Slava
An AWOL GWoTD:

• wrench •

Pronunciation: renchHear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: Meaning: 1. To twist suddenly and forcibly, as to wrench a bolt. 2. To cause a sudden rush of anxiety or distress, as a wrenching experience. 3. To sprain or pull a muscle, as to wrench a knee or ankle.

Notes: We will all, of course, immediately think of the tool for wrenching, a wrench, which the British call a spanner. ImageThe English word can also be used to refer to the act of wrenching, as the news gave him a hard wrench. The relatives of this word are all purely English: 'wrenched' (back) and 'wrenching' (experience). Don't forget the silent W at the beginning of these words.

In Play: The basic sense of today's Good Word is to twist violently: "The tornado wrenched the old chinaberry tree in Forrest Glade's back yard out of the ground by the roots." The next meaning is a figurative extension of that basic meaning: "When Barnaby heard the voice of Celia Feight behind him, he turned his head so fast he wrenched his neck something awful." The final step in the semantic journey of today's word is its abstract psychological sense: "The most wrenching experience in Gooden Small's career was the time when Hugh Jeego threw a wrench in Gooden's chances for a promotion."

Word History: Most of the words beginning on WR come from a single source. Old English wrencan "to twist" (today's 'wrench') comes from the same source as Old English wringan "to wring". English 'writhe', 'wrestle', 'wrap', 'wreck', 'wriggle', 'wrist'-even 'wrong' go back to PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN wer- "to turn, twist" with various suffixes and the normal changes accompanying them. They are all still connected by the sense of "to twist". This root emerged in Latin as vertere "to turn", seen in the English borrowings invert, convert, pervert. The past participle of 'vertere' is 'versus', another word English picked off. We see evidence of this PIE root in many Indo-European languages: Russian vertet' "to turn" and German werden "to become" from the sense of "turn into". (Lest we give Gianni Tamburini a wrench, we should thank him for such an interesting Good Word today.)

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 1:43 pm
by LukeJavan8
I think it would be great if we all could speak PIE.

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 2:28 pm
by MTC
Intriguing idea, Luke. I have emailed an expert in the PIE field. Should I hear from him I will let you know. Dr. G., an expert himself, may wish to comment.

P.S. Online research shows it is no picnic to write in PIE, much less speak it.

P.P.S. We all might share a pie as a consolation prize. That seems like a more appetizing idea.

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 4:05 pm
by LukeJavan8
Would we agree as to what kind of pie?

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 8:40 pm
by Perry Lassiter
Would first lessons include coconut cream, lemon meringue (now there's a word!) or dutch apple?

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 5:28 am
by MTC
I think it would be great if we all could speak PIE.
My email:

Dear Mr. Sampson:


Is PIE spoken today? If it is, would you please provide links to PIE speaking groups?


Many thanks,


MTC


Mr. Sampson's reply:

"Heavens, no! Proto-Indo-European is a hypothetical reconstructed
ancestor language from which the many attested Indo-European languages
are postulated as having descended. It was only spoken, assuming that
it was, thousands of years before the invention of writing allowed
speech to be recorded.

Geoffrey Sampson"

So I guess sharing a "real" pie will have to do, but that does present logistical problems of its own. And then there's the sticky problem of selecting the type of pie. Still, the reward would be sweet. It would end the pretext for any more painful puns at the least. Hey, it was Luke's idea to begin with! Maybe he's got a solution.

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 12:24 pm
by LukeJavan8
I hate conflict, I pass to Gail. Slava needs to input as well
as I think I see him smirking somewhere with the secret
that he does speak PIE.

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 1:31 pm
by Perry Lassiter
Well, we could...hypothetically...reconstruct some ancestors and see how they speak...just sayin...

Anyone know a good medium/channeler?

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 1:41 pm
by Slava
Speaking of channels, I've got a question about the image of a wrench here. Is that what the Brits call a spanner, or is a spanner more a monkey wrench? Would you also call a single-size wrench a spanner? Do you have a torque spanner, or is it a wrench?

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 12:34 am
by Philip Hudson
Any instrument that is called a wrench in America is called a spanner in England. Spanner comes by its meaning legitimately as a Germanic word which also is the ancestor of span, meaning to stretch out or stretch across.

English spanners are in every way the same as American wrenches. An English person can “throw a spanner into the works” and thus foil someone's plans. In America we can "throw an monkey wrench into the works" to accomplish the same thing. Spanners may be adjustable as in the Crescent wrench (a brand name). They may be open ended or box ended or even socket spanners with ratchet handles. A monkey wrench is only one kind of adjustable wrench, and not the most useful kind. Having agricultural, mechanical and "oil-patch" backgrounds, I am familiar with many kinds and sizes of wrenches. As far as I can understand, these are all spanners in England.

A peculiar group of rednecks, perhaps those who actually know what a wrench is and how to use one, say rānch for wrench. They also say rānch for ranch and rinse.

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 6:20 am
by call_copse
I'd certainly understand the use of wrench in a mechanical context but spanner is the word used in preference. A mole wrench is another popular tool described as a wrench. For a torque spanner torque wrench might also be popularly used to be fair. A monkey wrench is a particular kind of adjustable spanner, but the kind where the jaw is at an angle to the handle is what we'd call an adjustable spanner (crescent wrench as Philip calls it I think?).

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 10:40 am
by Perry Lassiter
The picture above IS what I have always called a monkey wrench.

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 11:30 am
by LukeJavan8
Well, we could...hypothetically...reconstruct some ancestors and see how they speak...just sayin...

Anyone know a good medium/channeler?

To go where no one has gone before??
Is this what you are requesting??

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 1:44 pm
by misterdoe
I read somewhere, quoted in Wikipedia, that anyone wanting to know what ancient Indo-European sounded like should listen to the speech of a Lithuanian peasant. I'm pretty sure the quote itself came from the 1800s, as I can't see a modern linguist referring to any contemporary as a peasant.

Re: WRENCH

Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 11:11 pm
by Philip Hudson
Lithuanian peasants do not nor have they ever spoken PIE. PIE is not a language. PIE is a linguisitc construct that describes the relationship of words within a PIE language and among all the PIE languages. This reminds me that people in Appalachia are sthought to speak pure Shakespearian English. Of course they do nothing of the kind. The truth in each of these ideas is that people in isolated areas do, in some cases, hold on to speech characteristics that larger societies have discarded.

Being of peasant stock is not a shameful condition. Abraham Lincoln said God must love the common people best because he made so many of us.