英语词汇rack one-s brains的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

rack one’s brains. This phrase does have its origins in the rack, that old instrument of torture introduced into the Tower of London by the duke of Exeter in 1470 and often called “Exe- ter’s Daughter” at the time. The machine was called the rack, or reck, from the German recken, “to stretch or draw out,” and was usually a wooden frame (adapted from those used in leather factories), with rollers at each end. The victim was fastened to the rollers by the wrists and ankles and the joints of his limbs were stretched by their rotation, sometimes until they were torn from their sockets. The rack was abolished in England by 1640, but its memory lived on in many vivid uses of the name. The powerful image of someone racking—stretching or staining—his brains or wits to find the answer to a question is found in the language as far back as 1583, at a time when the real rack was still being used.

词汇	rack one-s brains
词源	rack one’s brains. This phrase does have its origins in the rack, that old instrument of torture introduced into the Tower of London by the duke of Exeter in 1470 and often called “Exe- ter’s Daughter” at the time. The machine was called the rack, or reck, from the German recken, “to stretch or draw out,” and was usually a wooden frame (adapted from those used in leather factories), with rollers at each end. The victim was fastened to the rollers by the wrists and ankles and the joints of his limbs were stretched by their rotation, sometimes until they were torn from their sockets. The rack was abolished in England by 1640, but its memory lived on in many vivid uses of the name. The powerful image of someone racking—stretching or staining—his brains or wits to find the answer to a question is found in the language as far back as 1583, at a time when the real rack was still being used.
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