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RACK (1),
a grating above a manger for hay, an instrument of torture; as a verb, to extend
on a rack, to torture. (E.?) The word rack is used in a
great many senses, see Rack (2), &c., below; and, in several of
these, the origin is quite different. The word rack, to
torture, is prob. E., but it is remarkable that it is scarcely to be found in
early literature, either in that or any other sense. The oldest E.
word etymologically connected with rack (1) is Reach,
q.v. β. The radical sense of rack is to extend, stretch out; hence,
as a sb., that which is extended or straight, a straight bar (cf. G. rack, a
rail, bar); hence, a frame-work, such as the bars in a grating above a manger, a
frame-work used as an instrument of torture, a straight bar with teeth in which
a cog-wheel can work. Figuratively, to be on the rack is to be in
great anxiety; and to rack is to exaggerate (Halliwell). Also a
rack-rent is a rent stretched to its full value, or nearly so. γ.
For examples, see 'As though I had been racked,' i.e. tortured; Skelton, Phillip
Sparrow, l. 97. 'Galows and racke;' Caxton, tr. of Reynard the Fox,
ed. Arber, p. 24. 'A rekke, Præsepe,' i.e. a rack for hay; Prompt.
Parv. 'Rekke and manger' = rack and manger; Romance of Partenay, l.
913. δ. The verb is found in O. Du. recken, 'to rack, to torture;'
Hexham. Related words are Icel. rekja, to stretch, trace, rekkja, to
strain, rakkr, straight; O. Du. recken, 'to stretch, reach out, also to racke,'
Hexham; Swed. rak, straight; G. rack, a rack, rail, prov. G. reck, a scaffold,
wooden horse, reckbank, a rack for torture, recke, a stretcher, recken, to
stretch; and esp. Low G. rakk, a shelf, as in E. plate-rack, &c.
¶ The great dearth of early quotations suggests that
rack (for torture) may have
been borrowed from Holland; but the word may, in some senses at least, have been
English. For the root, see Rank (2).
Doublet, ratch [†] RACK
(2), light vapoury
clouds, the clouds generally. (Scand.) 'Still in use in the
Northern counties, and sometimes there applied to a mist;' Halliwell.
Used in Shak. of floating vapour; see Hamlet, ii. 2. 506, Antony, iv. 14. 10,
Sonnet 33, l. 6. So also (probably) in the disputed passage in the
Tempest, iv. 156; where Halliwell hesitates, though he gives instances of its
use in earlier English. Thus we find: 'As Phebus doeth at
mydday in the southe, Whan every rak and every cloudy sky Is voide clene;'
Lydgate, MS. Ashmole 39, fol. 51. 'The rac dryuez' = the storm-cloud
drives; Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, B. 433; a most decisive passage.
'A rak [driving storm] and a royde wynde;' Destruction of Troy,
1985. 'The windes in the vpper region, which move the clouds above
(which we call the racke) and are not perceived below;' Bacon, Nat. Hist.
§
115. [Frequently confused with reek, but this is quite a different
word.] It is rather the same word with wrack, and allied to wreck;
but wrack is to be taken in the sense of 'drift,' as rightly explained in
Wedgwood.—Icel. rek, drift, motion; given in Vigfusson only in the sense 'a
thing drifted ashore;' but Wedgwood cites ísinn er í reki, the ice is driving;
skýrek, the rack or drifting clouds; cf. 'racking clouds' = drifting clouds, 3
Hen. VI, ii. I. 27. From Icel. reka, to drive, toss, thrust, cognate
with Swed. vräka, to reject, and E. wreak; see Wreak. Cf. Swed.
skeppet vräker, the ship drifts. RACK
(3), to pour off liquor,
to subject it to a fermenting process. (F.,—L.?) See
Halliwell. In Minsheu, ed. 1627, who speaks of 'rackt wines, i.e.
wines cleansed and purged.'—O. F. raqué; Cotgrave explains vin raqué
as 'small,
or corse wine, squeezed from the dregs of the grapes, already drained of all
their best moisture.' Perhaps from Latin; I suppose raquer =
rasquer*,
cognate with Span. rascar, to scrape; see Rascal. Cf. Span.
rascon,
sour. [†] RACK
(4), another spelling of wrack, i.e.
wreck. 'To go to rack and ruin,' i.e. to go to wrack;
see Milton, P. L. iv. 994. See Wreck. RACK
(5), a short form of Arrack, q.v. Cf. Span.
raque, arrack. RACK
(6), &c.
We find (6) prov. E. rack, a neck of mutton; from A. S. hracca, neck, according
to Somner. Also (7) rack, for reck, to care; see Reck.
Also (8) rack, to relate, from A. S. reccan; see Reckon. Also (9)
rack, a pace of a horse, (Palsgrave), i.e. a rocking pace; see Rock
(2). Also (10) rack, a track, cart-rut; cf. Icel. reka, to drive;
see Rack (2).
ADDENDA RACK
(1). Early examples of the sb. occur in: 'a peyre rakkes
of yryne;' Earliest E. Wills, ed. Furnivall, p. 56, l. 27; 'rakkes and
brandernes of erne' [iron]; id. p. 57, l. 27; A.D. 1424. Also:
'a rake of yren,' described as used for roasting eggs on; id. p. 102, l.
5; A.D. 1434. I strongly suspect the word was borrowed from the
Netherlands. Cf. O. Du. recke, a perch, or a long pole; een
reck der vogelen, a hen-roost; recken, to rack; reck-banck, 'a
racke, or a torture-bank;' Hexham. RACK
(3). The latter part of the definition 'to subject it to a
fermenting process' is prob. wrong; I forget whence it was copied (as I believe
it was). Bacon, Nat. Hist. § 305, says: 'it is common
practice to draw wine or beere from the lees, which we call racking,
whereby it will clarifie much the sooner;' cf. also § 306.
Wedgwood quotes Languedoc araca le bi, transvaser le vin, which he
derives from draco or raco, dregs, in the same
language. Whether draco and raco are connected words I
do not know; but we may similarly derive F. raquer, in Cotgrave, from raque,
dirt, mud, mire, in the same; raque may have been taken in the sense of
'dregs.' Cotgrave also gives rasque, 'the scurf of a scauld
head;' cf. mod. F. rache, scurf (Littré). It seems to me to
make little difference to the etymology. The F. raquer meant 'to
clear from dregs,' from the sb. raque, dirt. I take the orig. sense
of raque or rasque to have been 'scrapings,' rache being another form of the
same word. Littré connects rache with Prov., Span., Port.
rascar, to
scrape; see further under Rascal.
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