|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427 |
I have seen it written in both ways, though perhaps more often as "nerve-racking". Are they both correct? 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
1973 Times 30 June "My own King Charles's head is the use of ‘nerve-wracking’ for ‘nerve-racking’."
[and what does the phrase 'my own KC's head' imply?]
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
It has to be "nerve-racking" - it stretches your nerves.
And both King Charles lost their heads, but in different ways. Don't know what the reference might be here.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
but wracking is just a variant of wrecking, so there is certainly justification for 'nerve-wracking' -- it just offends the purists. 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428 |
I have always thought that nerve-wracking was correct. One is wracked with pain, or am I wrong on that one, too?
(w)racking my brain for the answer...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
My Webster`s has it listed both ways but no explanation as to why.
In a pinch you can always use annoying.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Apparently I have been wrong all my life:
The American Heritage® Book of English Usage.
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
3. Word Choice: New Uses, Common Confusion, and Constraints
§ 251. rack / wrack
If you are racked with doubt about this pair, you are not alone. There are seven words spelled rack in English. Two of these are variants of words spelled wrack. The rack we are immediately concerned with is familiar as a frame for holding or displaying things: a hat rack. This rack also refers to an implement of torture, consisting of a frame on which the body is stretched. From this has come the figurative meaning “pain or torment.” In addition, rack can function as a verb, which means “to torture on a rack” and more commonly “to cause physical or mental suffering to,” as in For weeks after the accident he was racked with pain. It is the verb that gives us torment today. It often appears in the compound nerve-racking and in the idiom rack one’s brains. 1
On to wrack, of which, we noted, there are two. One means “destruction or ruin” and is familiar in the phrase wrack and ruin. The second wrack refers to wreckage cast ashore, but it is also a verb meaning “to cause the ruin of, wreck.” Thus a business can be wracked by stiff competition. Both of these wrack s have rack as an acceptable spelling variant, so a business can also be racked by competition, and the reader can never be sure if the business is in a state of metaphorical torment or if it is ruined—and in truth it may be both. 2
You can see how easy it is to mix these words up. If you want to avoid making a wreck of things, remember that the word rack, synonymous with pain, does not normally have wrack as a variant.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
King Charles' head is a reference from David Copperfield. Whenever Mr. Dick, one of the characters, tried to write anything sooner or later he would find himself mentioning King Charles the First's head, however hard he tried not to.
"King Charles's head" is used by some people to mean an obsession or distracting idea that continually interferes with whatever you're supposed to be doing.
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393
enthusiast
|
|
enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393 |
There are two other such pairs: to w(h)ile away the time, to w(h)et one's appetite. In both cases both spellings are eminently reasonable and justifiable. I recently tracked them both through the OED but forget what I found: I _think_ it was that we originally whiled and whetted. I would insist that now both are correct: this (w)rack is another good example of that.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
"King Charles's head" is used by some people to mean an obsession or distracting idea that continually interferes with whatever you're supposed to be doingThese are fascinating examples - thanks to all posters on this thread. Mr B's comment further suggests to me an alternative to Ayleurs - we could be Charlies!
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,915
Posts230,044
Members9,198
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
694
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
