Shelf And break in phrases like “(w)rack one’s brain” have been used interchangeably so often that it is fine to use both spellings. However, some commentators use suggested use shelf in the phrases “brain-chilling” and “nervous” and save break for images related to boats and storms, such as “devastating storm” and “devastating and devastation.”
Quick question: do you have “shelf your brain”or you”break your brain” Or is your brain messed up enough at this point that you can’t tell the difference between them at all? in this context, but we can provide you with some form of guidance.
Although ‘rack’ and ‘wrack’ come from different sources, treating them as variations of the same word may be the most logical approach.
Shelf And break often confused, and there are several ways in which one can easily distinguish between the two words. When using one of them as a noun, you are almost certainly looking for shelf. You hang your clothes on a shelfeat one shelf lamb, and, if you’re a fan of medieval torture, stick someone in a shelf is stretched until the bone is broken or the joint is dislocated. You should use the noun break for those happy moments in your life when you need to mention a shipwreck or some form of marine flora.
Origin of Rack vs Wrack
So why is there confusion? Well, the verb forms of these two words are often confused, and here there is no easy way to distinguish between them. The two words have come from different sources-shelf supposedly from Chinese Dutch calculatemeans “stretching” and break comes from the Middle English word for a shipwreck, shark—and retain different meanings. However, break has often been used as a variant spelling of shelfespecially when used in the phrases “(w)rack one’s brain” and “(w)racked with pain,” which many dictionaries now list as a variant.
I racked my brains and called out all the faces I could remember, but I couldn’t find the man in the red hat anywhere. —L. Black & R. Lynd, Horlick’s magazine1904
I racked my brains, but I couldn’t think of a single sale we’d ever made with him. —CD Crain, Jr., Sales agentAugust 1926
law of contradiction
Some guides have expressed the opinion that because the verb shelf comes from a musical instrument that stretches the body (not in a fun way), the word should be used in contexts involving tension, torture, and tension. And since break comes from the context of marine destruction, the word should be used to refer to debris (ravaged by storm) or destroy (sabotage and ruin). One problem with this is that we sometimes find that not only will common users of the language differ in the variant they use, but the manuals will give conflicting advice on what to expect. this problem.
The two works below were published just over a decade apart and have markedly different opinions on the correct spelling for (w) support and ruin.
Most edited English would prefer… sabotage and ruin, ravaged by stormAnd painful, but other Standard written proofs, including some Revised English, will use variant spellings for each. —Kenneth George Wilson, Columbia’s Guide to Standard American English1993
The spelling ‘rack’ is now used in every sense except the seaweed known as wrack. So it’s “rack and ruin”, … “gives me a headache”, etc. —Ned Halley, Wordsworth Dictionary of Modern English2005
Several other manuals offer a solution to this question that has a certain brutal appeal: just stop using the word. break. This is the method supported by The New York Times Handbook of Style and Usagepointed out that break is archaic, and then informs the reader that they should simply “replace a modern synonym”.
However, as often happens, we find that the advice most worth repeating is the advice found in Merriam-Webster dictionary of English usage:
Perhaps the most sensible attitude would be to ignore the etymologies of shelf And break (which, of course, is exactly what most people do) and treat them as simply spelling variations of a word. However, if you choose to follow the line outlined by the commentators, you will want to write stress, trick one’s brain, ravaged by stormand for good measure sabotage and ruin. Then you won’t have to worry about being criticized – except, of course, for using too many clichés.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
