Picture a wreck — something smashed — and then ask who is standing next to it. That is all -er is doing: naming the one at the scene. But there are two ways to be at the scene. You can be the reason it is a wreck, and then the word is an accusation. Or you can be the one sent to deal with it, and then the word is just a job: a truck that tows it, a yard that takes it apart.
From the word’s history
Wiktionary builds the word as wreck + -er, with -er coming down from Old English -ere. The two very different senses are not two histories; they are two ways of reading that one ending.
Wiktionary 把這個字拆成 wreck + -er，而 -er 是從古英文的 -ere 傳下來的。兩個差很多的意思並不是兩條來源，而是同一個字尾的兩種讀法。
Wiktionary entry 'wrecker' (packet source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1208323974): etymology tree ending 'From wreck + -er.'
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