%rought%

n. [ OE. droght, drougth, dru&yogh_;ð, AS. drugað, from drugian to dry. See Dry, and cf. Drouth, which shows the original final sound. ] 1. Dryness; want of rain or of water; especially, such dryness of the weather as affects the earth, and prevents the growth of plants; aridity. [ 1913 Webster ]

The drought of March hath pierced to the root. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

In a drought the thirsty creatures cry. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Thirst; want of drink. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Scarcity; lack. [ 1913 Webster ]

A drought of Christian writers caused a dearth of all history. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A state of dryness of the weather; want of rain. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Characterized by drought; wanting rain; arid; adust. [ 1913 Webster ]

Droughty and parched countries. Ray. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Dry; thirsty; wanting drink. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thy droughty throat. Philips. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Wrought with fine art or skill; elaborate. [ Obs. ] Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Worked up, or swollen, to a high degree; as, a highwrought passion. “A high-wrought flood.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

p. p. or a. [ Pref. in- + wrought. Cf. Inwork. ] Wrought or worked in or among other things; worked into any fabric so as to from a part of its texture; wrought or adorned, as with figures. [ 1913 Webster ]

His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge,
Inwrought with figures dim. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Badly wrought. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

p. p. & a. from Overwork. 1. Wrought upon excessively; overworked. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Extremely agitated or excited; overexcited; -- of people. [ PJC ]

obs. imp. of Reach. [ 1913 Webster ]

obs. imp. of Reck, to care. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) Any species of small ground snakes of the family Uropeltidae; -- so called from their rough tails. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Wrought in a rough, unfinished way; worked over coarsely. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Brought up; educated. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

imp. & p. p. of Work; as, What hath God wrought?. [ 1913 Webster ]

In 1837, Samuel F. B. Morse, an American artist, devised a working electric telegraph, based on a rough knowledge of electrical circuits, electromagnetic induction coils, and a scheme to encode alphabetic letters. He and his collaborators and backers campaigned for years before persuading the federal government to fund a demonstration. Finally, on May 24, 1844, they sent the first official long-distance telegraphic message in Morse code, "What hath God wrought," through a copper wire strung between Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland. The phrase was taken from the Bible, Numbers 23:23. It had been suggested to Morse by Annie Ellworth, the young daughter of a friend. Library of Congress, American Memories series (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may24.html). [ PJC ]

Alas that I was wrought [ created ]! Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

The word wrought is sometimes assumed to be the past tense of wreak, as the phrases
wreak havoc and
wrought havoc are both commonly used. In fact,
wrought havoc is not as common as
wreaked havoc. Whether wrought is considered as the past tense of wreak or of work,
wrought havoc has essentially the same meaning, encouraging the confusion. Etymologically, however, wrought is only the past tense of work. [ PJC ]

Wrought and wreaked havoc

Recently, we mentioned that something had wreaked havoc with our PC. We were fairly quickly corrected by someone who said, "Shouldn't that be wrought havoc?" The answer is no, because either wreaked or wrought is fine here. A misconception often arises because wrought is wrongly assumed to be the past participle of wreak. In fact wrought is the past participle of an early version of the word work!
Wreak comes from Old English wrecan "drive out, punish, avenge", which derives ultimately from the Indo-European root *wreg- "push, shove, drive, track down". Latin urgere "to urge" comes from the same source, giving English urge. Interestingly, wreak is also related to wrack and wreck. The phrase wreak havoc was first used by Agatha Christie in 1923.
Wrought, on the other hand, arose in the 13th century as the past participle of wirchen, Old English for "work". In the 15th century worked came into use as the past participle of work, but wrought survived in such phrases as finely-wrought, hand-wrought, and, of course, wrought havoc . . . .
Havoc, by the way, comes from Anglo-French havok, which derived from the phrase crier havot "to cry havoc". This meant "to give the army the order to begin seizing spoil, or to pillage". It is thought that this exclamation was Germanic in origin, but that's all that anyone will say about it! The destruction associated with pillaging came to be applied metaphorically to havoc, giving the word its current meaning.
The Institute for Etymological Research and Education (http://www.takeourword.com/Issue048.html) [ PJC ]