detract

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English detracten,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin dētractus (“drawn away”),^[4][3][5] the past participle of dētrahō (“to draw off, take away, pull down, disparage”),^[6][4][7] formed from dē- (“down, away”) and trahō (“to pull, draw”).^[4][8][9] Barnhart and Dictionary.com allow a route through Middle French détracter,^[7][10] though the OED only compares the French verb, which it dates to 1530.^[6] Barnhart adds that in some cases the English verb was probably a back-formation from detraction, recorded from 1340 in the “Ayenbite of Inwyt”.^[7] The Middle English Dictionary and the OED also see dētractō (“to decline, refuse, pull down”) behind some senses.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To disparage or speak ill of someone: probably before 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon,^[7][2] and before 1438 in the Book of Margery Kempe, where critics "detractyn hem & hyndryn hem".^[2] The OED's first quotation is from Pecock's Repressor (c. 1449), who says of some people that they "bacbiten and detracten the clergie".^[6][2] A short-lived adjective detract, extracted or taken out, is recorded about 1420.^[6]

Semantic evolution

English took the word first in its unfavourable Latin sense, and the literal "take away, withdraw" followed only about 1500, remaining rare according to Etymonline.^[4] The OED's first quotation for taking a part away from a whole is from Barclay in 1509.^[6] A sense of drawing a person aside from an action, or of withdrawing, ran from 1548 to 1802.^[6] The construction that has become the main one, detract from, to lessen a quality or value, is recorded from before 1592;^[6] from 1593 it could carry a note of depreciation.^[6] The two ideas met in Johnson's definition of 1755: to take something from another's reputation "by envy and calumny, or otherwise".^[11] The direct sense "to disparage" has since declined: the OED and the Shorter Oxford call it rare,^[6][12] Merriam-Webster Unabridged archaic,^[3] and Collins obsolete.^[5]

Timeline

• probably before 1425 – to disparage, defame.^[7][2] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century.^[4]
• 1509 – to take away a part from a whole.^[6]
• 1548 – to draw away or aside, to divert from an action (now obsolete).^[6]
• before 1592 – detract from, to diminish, lessen.^[6]
• 1605 – without an object, to speak disparagingly (obsolete by 1816).^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. With from: to make something seem less valuable, important or attractive: The new car park detracts from the view of the cathedral.^[5][3][6]
2. To take away a part of something: The delay detracts nothing from her achievement.^[5][6]
3. To divert or draw away, especially attention.^[3][5]
4. (archaic) To speak ill of someone; to disparage or belittle.^[3][6][5]
5. (obsolete, 1548–1802) To withdraw, or to draw someone aside from an action.^[6][12]

Word family

• detractor
• detractingly
• detractive
• detraction

Related words

• tract
• attract
• distract
• extract
• retract
• subtract

Usage notes

Collins warns that detract is sometimes wrongly used where distract is meant.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press