Etymologically
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rack

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

Pronunciation

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

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