![]() A century before William Byrd was writing, the noun had enlarged to mean the torture frame and more generally something that causes physical or mental suffering. The modern noun rack retains this spelling. Rack, the verb, derives from the Middle English noun for a frame on which cloth was stretched for drying, so similar in sense to tenter. of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by Edward Farr, 1845. Racke not thy wit to winne by wicked waies.Ĭare For Thy Soule, by William Byrd, in his Medius of 1583, republished in Select poetry. The earliest example known is in this poem:Ĭare for the world to do thy bodie right Let’s start by finding you the evidence that you lack for rack your brains, an idiom that has been known with wit and memory instead of brains. I can tell you from experience that doing so can leave you even more confused. Dr Robert Burchfield, editor of the current edition of Fowler’s Modern English Usage, comments that “nine homonymous nouns and seven homonymous verbs” exist and despairingly adds “All the complexities of this exceedingly complicated word cannot be set down here spare an hour (at least) to consult a large dictionary, especially the OED”. ![]() Etymologists know that the forms of rack and wrack (and wreak and wreck) have become inextricably confused down the centuries and have identified so many historical examples of wrack one’s brains and rack and ruin that to insist on one over the other is etymologically insupportable. The current edition of Fowler says equally positively that, at least in British English, rack is correct in both cases. Some style guides, such as Garner’s Modern American Usage, argue that the correct forms are rack one’s brains and wrack and ruin. Help!Ī These expressions cause much confusion. I’ve been painfully stretching my brains over this question. And it seems wrack and ruin has a similar confusion. I side with the former, though I realize I have no evidence. The spelling seems to depend on whether one thinks the phrase derives from the rack, the medieval torture device, or from a variant of wreak or wreck, to destroy. However, using the ‘wrack’ spelling is acceptable as well.Q From Scott Underwood: Recently I had a discussion about rack your brains and wrack your brains. I f you want to stick with traditionalism, you should use the ‘rack’ spelling. My father would wrack his brain trying to remember his Army friends’ names.Īs you can see, it is quite easy to use either spelling in a sentence.You are going to need to wrack your brain if you want to remember her order.She was racking her brain to remember where she knew the police officer from.He was racking his brain to figure out where he lost his keys.This section has several examples of how to properly use this phrase in a sentence, including examples with both spellings. When writing a sentence, you can use either spelling you want as long as it is appropriate for the context. ![]() How to Use Racking My Brain in a Sentence As a result of the long period of time that this phrase has been spelled incorrectly, only strict language and spelling traditionalists would consider it a spelling mistake today. This is what has happened to the phrase ‘racking my brain,’ as the years have passed. Sometimes words are misspelled so often that the dictionary eventually includes both the original spelling and the new, widely accepted spelling alongside the original. While, fortunately, this device no longer exists, we still have the phrase left over from this time period. The rack, referred to in this phrase, was a type of medieval torture device in which the victim’s arms and legs were tied to the rack and then practically torn from their bodies as if they were being ripped apart. ![]() It is implied that you are trying to recall something or that you have been thinking very hard in order to come up with an answer when you say “racking my brain.” When you rack your brains, you are mentally exerting yourself in order to recall or understand something. This is a common practice in English, and words’ spellings have changed over the course of millennia because of this practice.Ĭontinue reading below to learn more about the differences in spelling between the phrases wracking my brain and racking my brain, what this phrase means, and how to correctly use this phrase within a sentence. It is the original and correct version of this phrase to say, “Racking my brain.” However, over time, the English spelling of this specific phrase, ‘wracking my brain,’ has also gained acceptance as a valid way of spelling the phrase in question.
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