English
distraction
Distraction comes from Latin distractio ‘a dragging apart’, and goes back to trahō ‘to drag’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtrahō‘to drag’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdistrahō‘to drag apart’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdistractio‘a dragging apart’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600distraction
- Englishearliest quotation 1662distraction
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtrahō‘to drag’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdistrahō‘to drag apart’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdistractio‘a dragging apart’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600distraction
- Englishearliest quotation 1662distraction
Earliest quotation: 1662, Thomas Salusbury: “It's true that the Copernican Systeme introduceth distraction in…”
Formed from distract + -ion
Latin trahō ‘to pull’
Latin distrahō ‘to pull apart’
Latin distractus ‘divided, scattered’
English distract
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- ‘to run, to drag, to pull’
draw, train, draft, drag, retreat, draught, extraction, contraction, retract, abstraction, entreat, subtraction, abstractly, 48 more
through Latin trahō ‘to drag’
treat, contract, portrait, attractive, abstract, extract, trait, attraction, tractor, tram, tract, trattoria, 36 more
Today it means
noun Something that distracts.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin trahō / distraction