Ann Althouse quoted someone using the phrase "rack and ruin," which I immediately thought should be wrack and ruin, following the word wreck. I looked it up on the excellent Phrase Finder website, which I recommend bookmarking. While what I believed was based on a true story, wrack has been obsolete for 400 years, and rack has been in use since 1599.
Link is wrong
ReplyDeleteThank you
ReplyDelete“List to the valorous deeds that were done
ReplyDeleteBy Harold the Dauntless, Count Witikind's son!
Count Witikind came of a regal strain,
And roved with his Norsemen the land and the main.
Woe to the realms which he coasted! for there
Was shedding of blood and rending of hair,
Rape of maiden and slaughter of priest,
Gathering of ravens and wolves to the feast:
When he hoisted his standard black,
Before him was battle, behind him wrack,
And he burned the churches, that heathen Dane,
To light his band to their barks again.”
-Sir Walter Scott, “Harold the Dauntless,” Canto I.
You’re correct the first time. Wrack isn’t obsolete; it’s the right word.
Quoting Lucy Van Pelt "I thought I made a mistake once, but I was wrong."
ReplyDelete