wrench

[Cacasenno]

You can say it all with just one word if you go back to the roots!



wrench

PRONUNCIATION: rnch
NOUN: 1. A sudden sharp, forcible twist or turn. 2. An injury produced by twisting or straining. 3. A sudden tug at one's emotions; a surge of compassion, sorrow, or anguish. 4a. A break or parting that causes emotional distress. b. The pain so associated: felt a wrench when he was parted from his children. 5. A distortion in the original form or meaning of something written or spoken; twisted interpretation. 6. Any of various hand or power tools, often having fixed or adjustable jaws, used for gripping, turning, or twisting objects such as nuts, bolts, or pipes.
VERB: Inflected forms: wrenched, wrench·ing, wrench·es
TRANSITIVE VERB: 1a. To twist or turn suddenly and forcibly. b. To twist and sprain: I wrenched my knee. 2. To move, extract, or force free by pulling violently; yank. See synonyms at jerk1. 3. To pull at the feelings or emotions of; distress: It wrenched her to watch them go. 4. To distort or twist the original character or import of: wrenched the text to prove her point.
INTRANSITIVE VERB: To give a wrench, twist, or turn.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English wrenchen, to twist, from Old English wrencan. See wer-2 in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS: wrenching·ly —ADVERB



Appendix I

Indo-European Roots

ENTRY: wer-2
DEFINITION: Conventional base of various Indo-European roots; to turn, bend.
Derivatives include stalwart, weird, vertebra, wrath, wrong, wrestle, briar1, rhapsody, and worm.
I. Root *wert-, to turn, wind. 1. Germanic *werth-. a. (i) –ward, from Old English -weard, toward (< “turned toward”); (ii) inward, from Old English inweard, inward, from Germanic *inwarth, inward (*in, in; see en). Both (i) and (ii) from Germanic variant *warth; b. perhaps Germanic derivative *werthaz, “toward, opposite,” hence “equivalent, worth.” worth1; stalwart, from Old English weorth, worth, valuable, and derivative noun weorth, wierth, value. 2. worth2, from Old English weorthan, to befall, from Germanic *werthan, to become (< “to turn into”). 3. Zero-grade form *wt-. weird, from Old English wyrd, fate, destiny (< “that which befalls one”), from Germanic *wurthi-. 4. versatile, verse1, version, versus, vertebra, vertex, vertigo, vortex; adverse, anniversary, avert, bouleversement, controversy, converse1, convert, dextrorse, divert, evert, extrorse, extroversion, extrovert, introrse, introvert, invert, malversation, obvert, peevish, pervert, prose, retrorse, revert, sinistrorse, subvert, tergiversate, transverse, universe, from Latin vertere, to turn, with its frequentative versre, to turn, and passive versr, to stay, behave (< “to move around a place, frequent”). 5. verst, from Russian versta, line, from Balto-Slavic *wirst-, a turn, bend.
II. Root *wreit-, to turn. a. wreath, from Old English writha, band (< “that which is wound around”); b. writhe, from Old English wrthan, to twist, torture; c. wrath, wroth, from Old English wrth, angry (< “tormented, twisted”). a–c all from Germanic *wrth-, *wraith-.
III. Root *wergh-, to turn. 1. worry, from Old English wyrgan, to strangle, from Germanic *wurgjan. 2. Nasalized variant *wrengh-. a. wring, from Old English wringan, to twist, from Germanic *wreng-; b. (i) wrong, from Middle English wrong, wrong, from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse *vrangr, rangr, curved, crooked, wrong; (ii) wrangle, from Middle English wranglen, to wrangle, from a Low German source akin to wrangeln, to wrestle. Both (i) and (ii) from Germanic *wrang-.
IV. Root *werg-, to turn. 1. Nasalized variant form *wreng-. a. wrench, from Old English wrencan, to twist; b. wrinkle, from Old English gewrinclian, to wind (ge-, collective prefix; see kom). Both a and b from Germanic *wrankjan. 2. verge2; converge, diverge, from Latin vergere, to turn, tend toward.
V. Root *wreik-, to turn. 1a. wry, from Old English wrgian, to turn, bend, go; b. wriggle, from Middle Low German wriggeln, to wriggle. Both a and b from Germanic *wrg-. 2a. wrist, from Old English wrist, wrist; b. gaiter, from Old French guietre, gaiter, from Frankish *wrist-. Both a and b from Germanic *wristiz, from *wrihst-. 3. wrest, wrestle, from Old English wrstan, to twist, from secondary Germanic derivative *wraistjan. 4. Possibly o-grade form *wroik-. briar1, brusque, from Late Latin brcus, heather, from Gaulish *brko-.
VI. ribald, from Old French riber, to be wanton, from Germanic root *wrib-.
VII. Root *werb-, also *werbh-, to turn, bend. 1. warp, from Old English weorpan, to throw away, from Germanic *werp-, *warp-, “to fling by turning the arm.” 2. reverberate, from Latin verber, whip, rod. 3. verbena, vervain, from Latin verbna, sacred foliage. 4. Zero-grade form *wb-. rhabdomancy, rhabdovirus, from Greek rhabdos, rod. 5. Nasalized variant form *wrembh-. rhombus, from Greek rhombos, magic wheel, rhombus.
VIII. Root *werp-, to turn, wind. 1. Metathesized form *wrep-. wrap, from Middle English wrappen, to wrap, from a source akin to Danish dialectal vravle, to wind, from Germanic *wrap-. 2. Zero-grade form *wp-. raphe, rhaphide; rhapsody, staphylorrhaphy, tenorrhaphy, from Greek rhaptein, to sew.
IX. Root *wmi-, worm; rhyme word to kwmi-. 1. worm, from Old English wyrm, worm, from Germanic *wurmiz. 2. vermeil, vermi-, vermicelli, vermicular, vermin, from Latin vermis, worm. (Pokorny 3. er- 1152.)

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

[Stargzer]

I once saw "wrench" defined as a resort with horses in the Catskills ...

[Slava]

I once saw "wrench" defined as a resort with horses in the Catskills ...

Now that's an interesting twist.

[Perry]

Joe The Plumber, when called to the local pub, had himself wedged under the sink when saw the problem. "Hand me a wrench wench!", he called out to the barmaid.

[Cacasenno]

Joe The Plumber, when called to the local pub, had himself wedged under the sink when saw the problem. "Hand me a wrench wench!", he called out to the barmaid.

Whence, the wench?

Perhaps the correct form should have been:

Whence from, the wench?

[Slava]

Joe The Plumber, when called to the local pub, had himself wedged under the sink when saw the problem. "Hand me a wrench wench!", he called out to the barmaid.

Whence, the wench?

Perhaps the correct form should have been:

Whence from, the wench?

Whence the wench took that wrench and stuffed it (under the sink?).

On a sillier note, Joe the Plumber of debate fame is neither Joe, nor a plumber. Geez, did they really think no one would check it out? Dorks.

[Cacasenno]

Whence the wench took that wrench and stuffed it (under the sink?).

On a sillier note, Joe the Plumber of debate fame is neither Joe, nor a plumber. Geez, did they really think no one would check it out? Dorks.

So, this makes two of them we don't know whence they come from, the maid and the plumber (not to mention the wrench, of course)

This story is buiding up sumptuously for the next Bulwer-Lytton contest....

[Perry]

Serving maids in pubs of yore were often referred to as wench; at least in old movies.

[Cacasenno]

Serving maids in pubs of yore were often referred to as wench; at least in old movies.

Thanks Perry.

I had ben looking 'wench' up and I was infact referring to my previous post, "whence, the wench". Then Slava added "Joe" to the plot....

[Stargzer]

I once saw "wrench" defined as a resort with horses in the Catskills ...

Now that's an interesting twist.

It's from a joke book, circa (Hey! There's another GWOTD for you, Doc!) the late 1960s, werein "wrench" is used as a mispronunciation of "ranch." One has to know something about the Catskills, especially a certain particular area, to get the gist (YAGWOTD!) of the joke.

Right, Perry?

A pun and two GWOTDs, all in one post; i' jus' don' git no better 'n this, duzzit!

[Perry]

You're on top of your game. What are they feeding you?

[Stargzer]

You're on top of your game. What are they feeding you?

Whatever it is, they keep me in the dark.