semantic drift: "wrought" = ?

[Jonathan Lighter]

None of the OED senses, including that of "wrought-up," seems to fit here.  "Overwrought" is possible, but even that seems like a stretch.   From a mishearing of "rotten with"?

  1999 Laura Schlessinger, in Dean Memering & William Palmer _Discovering Arguments_ (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2002) 123: It's the hyperbole that always gets me. The pro-abortion feminists are wrought with it. Take, for example, Gloria Steinem's quote eulogizing Justice Blackmun (author of _Roe_ vs. _Wade_): "Justice Blackmun saved more women's lives than any other person in history."

  "Dr. Laura" is well known radio talk-show host.

  JL


---------------------------------
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org