wreck: [13] Wreck goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *wreg-, a variant of which may be responsible for English urge. Its Germanic descendant *wrek- formed the basis of a verb *wrekan ‘drive’. The native English descendant of this is wreak [OE], which originally meant ‘drive out’, and developed its modern meaning via ‘give vent to anger or other violent emotions’. Wreck itself was acquired via Old Norse *wrek and Anglo-Norman wrec, and etymologically it denotes a ship that has been ‘driven’ on to the shore.
A variant of the same base, *wrak-, lies behind English wretch [OE] (etymologically someone ‘driven’ out, an ‘exile’) and also possibly French garçon ‘boy’. => urge, wreak, wretch
wreck (n.)
early 13c., "goods cast ashore after a shipwreck, flotsam," from Anglo-French wrec, from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse *wrek "wreck, flotsam" (cognates: Norwegian, Icelandic rek), related to reka "to drive, push," from Proto-Germanic *wrekan (see wreak (v.)). The meaning "a shipwreck" is first recorded mid-15c.; that of "a wrecked ship" is by c. 1500. General sense of "remains of anything that has been ruined" is recorded from 1713; applied by 1795 to dissipated persons. Compare wrack (v.).
wreck (v.)
"to destroy, ruin," c. 1500, from wreck (n.). Earlier (12c.) it meant "drive out or away, remove;" also "take vengeance." Intransitive sense from 1670s. Related: Wrecked; wrecking.
双语例句
1. The Navy is to carry out an examination of the wreck tomorrow.
海军明天将对失事船只进行细查。
来自柯林斯例句
2. What would he tell his parents if he had a wreck?
如果他出了事故，他怎么向他的父母交代？
来自柯林斯例句
3. The pilot struggled out of the wreck almost uninjured.
飞行员艰难地从失事的飞机中爬出来，几乎没有受伤。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The precise location of the wreck was discovered in 1988.
残骸的确切位置是在1988年发现的。
来自柯林斯例句
5. This sighting occurred during my dive to a sunken wreck off Sardinia.