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Words easily confused (by Jed) #10

17 October 2003, 3:15 PM

Half a dozen times in the last week, I've seen a reference to someone racking their brains. Each time, I've thought "No, no, no, that's spelled wrack; why didn't a proofreader catch this?"

But then I went and looked it up, and found that both spellings are synonymous; and furthermore, that wrack in this sense seems to have appeared later than rack in this sense.

So I was just plain wrong. But I figured I'd let y'all learn from my mistake.

Comments

Is it the same spelling for "rack and ruin?"

Posted by: Rachel (web) | October 17, 2003 6:47 PM

According to MW10 (actually, I guess it's MW11 now—it'll take me a while to get in the habit of typing that), the rack of rack and ruin is a synonym of wrack.

Posted by: Jed | October 17, 2003 6:57 PM

Actually, the version you're linking to is still pretty much MW10. They're keeping that as the free version. MW11 and the unabridged MW3 are also both online, but those cost money to access.

Posted by: Shmuel (mail) (web) | October 18, 2003 12:08 PM

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