Wrang

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Incorrect, unjust or amiss in Scots usage ; an act of injustice or a harm done to someone
2. Not right or mistaken, as used in Scottish speech ; a wrongful deed or an unfair injury inflicted on another
3. Describing something faulty or improper in Scots dialect ; a piece of injustice or the harm that results from it

Etymology: "Wrang" is the simple past of "wring", a verb that Old English had as "wringan", meaning to squeeze, twist or force liquid out of something by twisting. The past-tense form comes from the older strong verb pattern, where vowel changes marked tense, so "wring" became "wrang" and then "wrung" as the forms shifted over the centuries. Its roots reach back to a Proto-Germanic verb "*wringaną" meaning to squeeze or twist, and the same root survives in German "ringen", which means to wrestle or struggle, a sense that shows how close the ideas of twisting and grappling once were. This form is a past tense, so it is the form of "wring" used for the action in the past. Current English mostly uses "wrung" for this, with "wrang" heard in older or dialect speech.

Synonyms: wrong, incorrect, erroneous, mistaken, amiss

Antonyms: right, correct