Wrought means shaped by hammering, as iron is. Wrought iron, finely wrought, wrought by hand.
Wrought iron is worked hot on an anvil rather than poured into a mould, which is what makes it fibrous and tough — most modern gates called wrought iron are actually mild steel. Figuratively, finely wrought means carefully made. Note what hath God wrought; wrought-up, meaning agitated; and that wrought is the old past participle of work, so a wrought thing is a worked one.
1adjectivewroughtShaped by hammering, as iron is.
“The old houses in the square have beautiful wrought iron balconies.”
2adjectivecarefullyCarefully made.
“It was a finely wrought speech that moved the whole audience.”
wrought is a quality of being worked.
Wrought is the old past participle of work, from Old English wyrcan. The regular worked replaced it everywhere except in this fixed adjectival use.
Proto-Indo-European
*werǵ- — to work
Proto-Germanic
*wurkijaną — to work
Proto-West Germanic
*wurkijan
Old English
wyrċan
Middle English
worchen — to work
English, today
wrought
The past participle of Middle English worchen (“to work”), from Old English wyrċan (past tense worhte, past participle ġeworht; cf. also the metathetic variant (ġe)wroht), from Proto-West Germanic wurkijan, from Proto-Germanic wurkijaną (“to work”), from Proto-Indo-European werǵ- (“to work”). Doublet of worked. Cognate with wright (as in wheelwright etc.), Dutch gewrocht, archaic past participle of werken (archaic past tense wrocht), Low German wracht, archaic past participle of warken (archaic past tense wrach, archaic past participle wracht).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA