| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
| |
| rack, wrack (nn., vv.) |
| |
| |
| In some senses, the verbs rack and wrack are synonymous, and the two words, each as either noun or verb, are nearly interchangeable at some points. The usage problems arise over which spelling to use where there seems to be a possible or a clear overlap in meaning. Most Edited English will prefer rack your brain, wrack and ruin, storm-wracked, and pain-wracked, but other Standard written evidence, including some Edited English, will use the variant spelling for each (see NERVE-WRACKING). | 1 |
| The noun rack has a great many meanings, some of the most important being “a frame, stand, or grating,” plus many figurative but specialized extended meanings, such as “a pair of antlers,” “an instrument to which the victim’s body is strapped prior to various forms of torture,” “wreckage” (limited usually today to the cliché rack—more often wrack—and ruin), “a great cluster of clouds blown about by the wind,” and “a cut of meat, particularly the rack of lamb, which includes spine and ribs.” Many of these extended senses have related verb meanings, usually also spelled rack: the key one is “to put on a rack” or “to enclose in a rack, as with billiard balls.” A figurative sense of the “torture” noun is the verb “to oppress (especially the poor or tenants), particularly by charging exorbitant rents.” All these are currently Standard. | 2 |
| Wrack, the noun, stems ultimately from an Old English word meaning “misery” and has a general meaning of “destruction or wreckage,” literal or figurative, plus senses including “a shipwreck” and “the uprooted marine plant life cast up on shore by the sea.” The verb made from the noun wrack (and spelled like it) means “to suffer or to be subjected to terrible pain or suffering, literal or figurative.” | 3 |
| |
| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
|
|
