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TRACE (1),
a track left by drawing anything along, a mark left, a footprint. (F.,—L.)
M.E. trace, King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 7771; Pricke of Conscience, 4349.—F.
trace, 'a trace, footing, print of the foot; also, a path or tract;'
Cot. Cf. Ital. traccia, a trace, track; Span. traza, a
first sketch, outline. A verbal sb., from F. tracer, verb,
'to trace, follow, pursue;' of which another form was trasser, 'to
delineate, score, trace out;' Cot. Cf. Ital. tracciare, to
trace, devise; Span. trazar, to plan, sketch. These verbs are
all formed (as if from a Low Lat. tractiare*) from tract-us, pp.
of trahere, to draw, orig. to drag with violence. Supposed to
be related to Gk. θράσσειν (τραχ-yειν), to trouble,
θργ-μός, a crackling or
crashing.—✔TARGH,
to tear or pull; Fick, i. 598. ¶
Not related to E. draw.
Der. trace, verb, M.E. tracen, Chaucer, Parl. of Foules, 54 (less common than
the sb.), directly from F. tracer, to trace, as above; trac-er, trace-able,
trac-ing; trac-er-y, a coined word, in rather late use. Also (from
Lat. trahere) trace (2), tract (1), tract (2), tract-able, tract-ile, tract-ion,
tract-ate, train, trait, treat, treat-ise, treat-y; also abs-tract, at-tract,
con-tract, de-tract, dis-tract, ex-tract, pro-tract, re-tract, sub-tract;
mal-treat, por-trait, por-tray or pour-tray, re-treat.
TRACE (2),
one of the straps by which a vehicle is drawn. (F.,—L.)
'Trace, horse harnesse, trays;' Palsgrave. M.E. traice:
'Trayce, horsys harneys, Tenda, traxus, restis, trahale;' Prompt.
Parv. Evidently from the O.F. trays, cited by Palsgrave,
which is probably a pl. form and equivalent to F. traits, pl. of trait.
At any rate, Cotgrave gives as one sense of trait (which he spells traict)
that of 'a teame-trace or trait, the cord or chain that runs between the horses,
also the draught-tree of a caroch.' I suppose that trace = F.
traits, and that traces is a double plural. See Trait.
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