trace
pronunciation
How to pronounce trace in British English:
UK [treɪs]
How to pronounce trace in American English:
US [treɪs]
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- Noun:
- a just detectable amount
- an indication that something has been present
- a suggestion of some quality
- drawing created by tracing
- either of two lines that connect a horse's harness to a wagon or other vehicle or to a whiffletree
- a visible mark (as a footprint) left by the passage of person or animal or vehicle
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- Verb:
- follow, discover, or ascertain the course of development of something
- make a mark or lines on a surface
- to go back over again
- pursue or chase relentlessly
- discover traces of
- make one's course or travel along a path; travel or pass over, around, or along
- copy by following the lines of the original drawing on a transparent sheet placed upon it; make a tracing of
- read with difficulty
Word Origin
- trace
- trace: English has two distinct words trace, but they come from the same ultimate ancestor. This was tractus (source also of English tract, tractor, treat, etc), the past participle of Latin trahere ‘pull’. This passed into Old French as trait ‘pulling, draught’, hence ‘harness-strap’, from which English gets trait [16]. Its plural trais was borrowed by English as trace ‘harness-strap’ [14]. Tractus also formed the basis of a Vulgar Latin verb *tractiāre ‘drag’, which evolved into Old French tracier ‘make one’s way’, source of the English verb trace [14].A noun trace was also derived from tracier, and this too was acquired by English as trace [13]. At first it denoted a ‘path’ or ‘track’; the modern sense ‘visible sign’ did not develop until the 17th century.=> attract, contract, tract, tractor, trait, treat
- trace (v.)
- late 14c., "follow (a course); draw a line, make an outline of something," also figurative; "ponder, investigate," from Old French tracier "look for, follow, pursue" (12c., Modern French tracer), from Vulgar Latin *tractiare "delineate, score, trace" (source also of Spanish trazar "to trace, devise, plan out," Italian tracciare "to follow by foot"), a frequentative form from Latin tractus "track, course," literally "a drawing out," from past participle stem of trahere "to pull, draw" (see tract (n.1)). Meaning "move along, pass over" (a path, etc.) is attested from c. 1400; that of "track down, follow the trail of" is early 15c. Meaning "copy a drawing on a transparent sheet laid over it" is recorded from 1762. Related: Traced; tracing.
- trace (n.1)
- "track made by passage of a person or thing," c. 1300, from Old French trace "mark, imprint, tracks" (12c.), back-formation from tracier (see trace (v.)). Scientific sense of "indication of minute presence in some chemical compound" is from 1827. Traces "vestiges" is from c. 1400.
- trace (n.2)
- "straps or chains by which an animal pulls a vehicle," c. 1300, from earlier collective plural trays, from Old French traiz, plural of trait "strap for harnessing, act of drawing," from Latin tractus "a drawing, track," from stem of trahere "to pull, draw" (see tract (n.1)). Related: Traces.
Example
- 1. Some analysts trace the current policies to habits formed in the late 1990s .
- 2. The earliest such thought experimenter I can trace is an unnamed founder of the independent newspaper .
- 3. Do not use trace nodes on production environments .
- 4. More than a third could not trace faulty batches to the customer .
- 5. Other parents fret about thimerosal , a preservative that contains trace amounts of mercury .