Word Confusion: Retch versus Wretch

Posted March 20, 2017 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
22 Dec 2022

Too many wretches have confused retch and wretch that a Word Confusion for this pair of wretched heterographs was a necessity.

It’s a wretched thing when one reads of a retch of a person doing horrible things. Even worse when I’m thinking of this person retching, er, vomiting everywhere, when it turns out that they’re merely a miserable person. In other words, a wretch.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Retch	Wretch
Oktoberfest 2011 Drunken Female is Usien’s own work under the CC0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Yep, she’s definitely retching up all that beer.	Homeless Man, Tokyo, 2008, is MichaelMaggs’ own work under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — He’s but a poor wretch, out on the streets.
Part of Grammar:
Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: retches Gerund: retching Third person present verb: retches Past tense or past participle: retched Present participle: retching	Noun Plural for the noun: wretches
The act or action of vomiting Noun: A movement or sound of vomiting Verb, intransitive: Make the sound and movement of vomiting Make efforts to vomit Verb, transitive: To vomit	A person A deplorably unfortunate or unhappy person [Informal] A despicable or contemptible person
Examples:
Noun: That retching is making me sick to my stomach. With a sudden retch, he vomited all over the floor. Verb, intransitive: Listening to him retch is making me sick to my stomach. The sour taste in her mouth made her retch. Verb, transitive: Jerry? He’s retching his heart out in the bathroom. He retched up a thin stream of vomit.	Can the poor wretch’s corpse tell us anything? Those ungrateful wretches. I can’t believe you did this, you wretch!
Derivatives:
	Adjective: wretched, wretcheder, wretchedest Adverb: wretchedly Noun: wretchedness
History of the Word:
Mid-19th century is a variant of the dialect reach, from a Germanic base meaning spittle.	Old English wrecca (also in the sense of banished person) is related to the German Recke meaning warrior, hero.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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