rack

Rack, wind-driven cloud, is probably Scandinavian; rack, a frame, is probably from Middle Dutch.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ræk/^[4]

rack¹ driven cloud

Etymology

The cloud is inherited from Middle English rak (“rapid movement, rain cloud”), probably of Scandinavian origin;^[1][5][2][3] compare Old Norse rek (“jetsam, wreckage”) and Norwegian and Swedish dialect rak, wreckage,^[1][2][3] possibly with influence from Old English racu (“cloud, storm”) or wræc (“something driven”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A rush, shock or collision: before 1300 in the OED and Barnhart, about 1300 in Etymonline.^[6][1][5]

Semantic evolution

A rush of wind is from about 1400,^[6] and clouds driven before the wind in the upper air from the 14th century,^[6] or about 1380 as a rain cloud.^[1] The verb, of clouds, to be driven by the wind, is probably from before 1200.^[1]

Timeline

• before 1300 – a rush, collision.^[6][1]
• 14th century – driven cloud.^[6]
• c. 1400 – a rush of wind.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A thin mass of wind-driven cloud.

Verb

1. Of clouds, to be driven by the wind; to scud.

rack² frame

Etymology

The frame is inherited from Middle English rekke, probably borrowed from Middle Dutch rec (“framework”), related to recken (“to stretch out”),^[1][5][2][3] cognate with Old English reccan (“to stretch out”),^[1][5] from Proto-Indo-European *reg- (“to move in a straight line”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A frame with bars or pegs to hang or hold things: about 1300.^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

The instrument of torture, a frame for stretching the body, is from the 15th century,^[2] and was adapted from a device for stretching cloth.^[7] The verb, to stretch on the rack, is from the 15th century,^[2] and to rack one's brains from the late 16th.^[7] A manger, a rack for fodder, is from late Middle English.^[7] A toothed bar engaging a pinion is a rack in mechanics.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a frame for things.^[1][5]
• 15th century – the rack, torture.^[2]
• 15th century – to rack (verb).^[2]
• late 16th century – to rack one's brains.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A framework for holding, hanging or displaying things: a plate rack.
2. the rack: an instrument of torture that stretched the victim's body.
3. A toothed bar that engages a pinion.
4. A triangular frame for setting up billiard balls.

Verb

1. To cause great physical or mental suffering to.
2. To torture on the rack.
3. rack one's brains: to try hard to think of something.

Word family

• roof rack

Related words

• wrack
• wreck
• reach

Usage notes

Other words spelled rack are separate: a horse's fast gait (1530), of uncertain origin;^[1][5] rack in rack and ruin (1599), a variant of wrack;^[1][5] a rib cut of lamb or veal;^[9] and to rack wine, draw it off its dregs, from Provençal.^[7][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin