Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 248.
The verb phrase today is to" rack one's brain. " Okay. Let's take a look at the note here.
If one racks one's brain, it means that
someone is trying very hard to think of
something or remember something. Let's continue.
The origin of the verb phrase derives from the medieval torture instrument
of a rack. This is the one in which one's body was stretched out on
a surface and one's arms and legs were pulled with
chains, as a form of torture. Yeah. If you ever seen the old movies that took place
during medieval times, sometimes this was a way to torture
somebody. They'd lay somebody like on a flat slab
surface and then you know, they'd be pulling their arms and legs
where you know it was very painful. You know to either get somebody to
confess or, or just simply to torture them.
So this is where the idea of the rack comes from. Because
some people always used to... you know, even myself I used to often wonder why do
we say rack one's brain ?. Where'd the rack come
from ? All right. So it comes from this idea of
this torture instrument. So let's continue.
Okay. Good. So thus if one wracks one's brain,
it alludes to the idea of stretching one's brain , which
it causes extreme discomfort in order to remember
something. So that's the idea. It's almost like your brain is on the rack and
you're trying to stretch it out. So you could try to remember. So that's
where it comes from. Okay. Older variants of this phrase
were " to rack one's wit" or " rack one's memory, "
but they have fallen out of use. But if you went back in time you might find
where they use it to rack one's wit or to rack one's memory. But we don't use it
anymore today. All right. Let's continue. Shakespeare had
a use of rack in this sense in his play " The Twelfth
Night "in 1602. Here is the quote. How have the hours... of course you see
hours was spelled different back then. How have the hours racked and tortured
me since I have lost thee. Remember "thee" means
you. So again remember he was... he's much closer to the time when they used
the rack. So that was still very much in their memory. So
it's a way of torture. So he was saying that you know, kind of
tortured himself in this sense. All right. Let's continue.
One of the earliest known citations of rack one's brain
was first written by William Beveridge
Sermons. Okay. In the late 1600;s. "They racked their brains. " All right.
Basically that's how it was used. All right. And here we just have three
examples to show how we use this today.
I've been racking my brain, but I just cannot remember where I put it.
Yeah. That's what typically the way somebody might use it.
Or number two here. I racked my brain but I just cannot remember her name. You
know maybe you're trying to remember who somebody was or
what, what their name was. All right. And number three here.
Try to rack your brain. Like somebody might tell you to do it. Kind of as a
command. Try to rack your brain, if we cannot
remember that password and get into our account,
we are in big trouble. Yeah. A lot of people forget their password. So
maybe you try to rack your brain figuring out
what did I write down again ? Didn't I put it somewhere ? Maybe you lost the piece of
paper you put it on. But you're trying to rack your brain to
remember. Okay. And just one little last note here.
Some dictionaries may accept rack with a W-R-A-C-K.
To wrack one's brain as an alternative spelling.
Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it is clear. I hope that was very informative.
Again if you like these ... all these phrases
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