Etymograph

English

track

Track comes from Old French trac ‘track of horses, trail, trace’.

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400trac‘track of horses’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500trak
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1837track

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400trac‘track of horses’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500trak
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1837track

Earliest quotation: 1837, Elizabeth Parker, Popular Poems. Selected by E. P.: “I've swept o'er the mountain, the forest and fell,…”

The story

Likely from a Germanic source, either Old Norse traðk ("a track; path; trodden spot"; > Icelandic traðk (‘a track; path; tread’), Faroese traðk (‘track; tracks’), Norwegian tråkke (‘to trample’)) or from Middle Dutch trec, *trac, treck ("line, row, series"; > Dutch trek (‘a draft; feature; trait; groove; expedition’)), German Low German Treck (‘a draught; movement; passage; flow’).

Every English word from Old French trac

Today it means

noun A mark left by something that has passed along.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Old French trac / track

Shirt and support for this word