extract

Pronunciation

• IPA: verb /ɪkˈstrækt/, noun /ˈek.strækt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English extracten, borrowed from Latin extractus, the past participle of extrahere, to draw out,^[2][3][4] from ex-, out, and trahere, to draw (see tract).^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To draw or pull out: probably before 1425 in Barnhart, the late 15th century in Etymonline.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective, derived, descended, is from the 15th century and survives in Scots.^[4][6] The noun meant a summary or outline about 1443,^[2][3] and a passage copied out from the 15th century;^[4] the substance drawn from something by distillation or chemical process is from the 1580s (1590).^[3][7] To copy out a passage is from the 17th century.^[4] Extraction, at first the action of drawing out, also meant lineage, descent, from about 1477.^[2][4] Extractor is from 1611.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1425 – to draw out.^[2]
• c. 1443 – a summary (noun).^[2]
• c. 1477 – extraction, lineage.^[2]
• 1590 – a concentrated substance.^[7]
• 1611 – extractor.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To pull or draw out, often with force.
2. To obtain something from a substance by pressure, distillation or a chemical process.
3. To obtain information, money or a concession, especially against resistance.
4. To copy out or excerpt a passage.
5. (mathematics) To calculate a root of a number.

Noun

1. A passage taken from a book or document; an excerpt.
2. A concentrated preparation of a substance: vanilla extract.

Word family

• extractable
• extractor
• extractability
• extractant
• extractive
• preextract
• nonextracted
• unextracted

Related words

• extraction
• tract
• attract
• distract
• abstract

Usage notes

In West Yorkshire, extract was a woollen material recovered from mixed rags by means of acids.^[8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)