Comments on: “Wracking” or “Racking” Your Brain?

By: Priscilla

Priscilla — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:05:19 +0000

You rack your brain, but your nerves get wracked.

By: neil

neil — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:28:02 +0000

Originally, it was to “wrack one’s brains” – with the meaning explained above. Over time, various English speakers have altered the spelling to “rack one’s brains” (again, with the meaning explained above). My Cambridge (yes, England, not Texas) linguistics tutor once explained to me that “no native English speaker can ever make a mistake in English.” What he meant was that if an English person says “Innit?”, when in my opinion they should say “shouldn’t they?”, then that is a perfectly valuable VARIANT.
Whether or not I feel they should be taken into a secluded place and have their brains blown out is quite another matter. Language is not, and should not be considered to be, a static process. The mere fact that extremely literate, well-educated people are arguing the pros and cons of whichever spelling, is an argument for this conclusion :
Both are now acceptable.

But “nite” should be spelled “night” and “thru” should be spelled “through”. Do you really think you are writing ENGLISH, you BASTARDS?!

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 04:14:07 +0000

The sense conveyed by “racking ones brain” is of stretching it past its limit and is the intent of the earliest usages of the phrase. The idiom references the torture device that stretched it’s victims, which was itself named for it’s obvious resemblance in function to devices for stretching out cloth, parchment or hides. The OED gives this citation which best illustrates:

1704 Swift Tale of Tub iv. 103 He had kept his Brain so long, and so violently upon the Rack, that at last it shook it self.

By: warrington

warrington — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 04:08:00 +0000

gahbless you for clearing this up. I really did want to jump from wreaking to wracking, but that was just an fanboy love of of the wrrrr, more than an etymologically astute usage.

racking it is boss.

By: Val B

Val B — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:35:22 +0000

The English language is constantly changing (do we still want to communicate in Chaucer’s language, beautiful as it was then?) Wracking and racking are both acceptable in this context and it is a matter of personal choice. My personal preference is wrack but as long as the writer’s meaning is understood, what does it matter?