English
protract
Protract comes from Latin prōtrahō ‘to drag, pull, draw or bring forth or out (to…’, and goes back to trahō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtrahō‘to drag’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEprōtrahō‘to drag, pull, draw or bring forth or out (to a place)’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591protract
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtrahō‘to drag’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEprōtrahō‘to drag, pull, draw or bring forth or out (to a place)’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591protract
Earliest quotation: 1591, William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixt: “Doubtless he shrives this woman to her smock; Else…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- ‘to run, to drag, to pull’
draw, train, draft, drag, retreat, extraction, draught, contraction, abstraction, subtraction, entreat, abstractly, 48 more
through Latin trahō ‘to drag’
treat, contract, attractive, attraction, abstract, extract, trait, distraction, traction, tractor, distract, tram, retract, trattoria, tractable, 32 more
through Latin prōtrahō ‘to drag, pull, draw or bring forth or out (to…’
Today it means
verb To draw out; to extend, especially in duration.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin trahō / protract