Which is correct? I thought I knew, but it turned out I'd been using the wrong one my entire life!
That doesn't beat a high schooler's misunderstanding of "took it for granted" when he wrote "took it for granite" or my very good friend's use of the abomination "kinda've," but this one's a confusing one that I had no idea about!
Apparently the correct usage is "nerve racking" according to grammarist.com, my new favorite website. One definition of rack is to torture with a rack (a Medieval torture device). So when we use the word rack in reference to the brain, it means that we're thinking so hard about something that it's like torture ("I had to rack my brain to remember...").
Similarly, when we talk about the phrasal adjective nerve-racking (I almost typed "nerve-wracking!"), we're describing something that tortures the nerves ("What a nerve-racking experience!").
FYI!
Showing posts with label nerve racking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nerve racking. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
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