retrace

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Middle French retraicier, also retracer (“to follow the tracks of, pursue”), and partly formed from English re- + trace on the model of the French verb.^[2][3] Etymonline, Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Oxford Dictionary of English derive the whole word from the French verb,^[4][5][6] and Barnhart calls the English formation the probable one.^[3] The French verb is formed from re- (“again”) and tracer (“to trace”),^[2][4] from Old French tracier (“to look for, follow, pursue”),^[4][5] from Vulgar Latin *tractiāre (“to delineate, score, trace”), from Latin tractus (“track, course”),^[4] from trahō (“to pull, draw”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In military language, to fall back or retreat: 1539, in Richard Morison's translation of Frontinus; this use is recorded only to 1544.^[2] Earlier dictionaries begin later: the 1690s in Etymonline, with the sense of tracing back to a source, and 1697 in Barnhart, in Dryden's translation of the Aeneid.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The OED's revised entry moved the sense "return by the same route" back to 1594, in Richard Carew's translation of Tasso,^[2] where Etymonline and Barnhart had given 1794.^[4][3] Tracing in thought or memory follows in 1686,^[2] and tracing back through earlier stages in 1697, in Dryden's Virgil.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) knew only the last: he defined the word as to trace back, quoting Dryden's "Then if the line of Turnus you retrace".^[7] His 1773 edition added to trace again.^[7] Following something again with the eyes dates from 1726, in Pope's Odyssey,^[2] and going over a line or design again with a pen from 1769.^[2]

Timeline

• 1539 – to fall back, retreat (recorded to 1544).^[2]
• 1594 – to return along one's outward route.^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart date this sense to 1794.^[4][3]
• 1686 – to trace again in thought or memory; to recapitulate.^[2]
• 1697 – to follow back to an origin or source.^[2][3]
• 1726 – to look over again with care.^[2]
• 1769 – to go over a line or design again with a pen or pencil.^[2]
• 1775 – to travel a route taken before, by oneself or another.^[2]
• 1866 – intransitive, to return by the same route.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go back over a route, as in retrace one's steps: She retraced her steps to look for the lost glove.^[8][5][2]
2. To go over a past event again in the mind; to recall: He retraced the whole conversation on the train home.^[8][5][2]
3. To follow something back to its origin: The historian retraced the family's line to a Norfolk village.^[5][2]
4. To go over an account again from the beginning.^[8][2]
5. To draw over a line or outline again: The child retraced the letters in ink.^[5][2]
6. (rare) To look over again with close attention.^[2][5]

Noun

1. The return of the electron beam to its starting point in a cathode ray tube after a scan.^[5]

Word family

• retraceable
• retracement
• retracer

Related words

• trace
• re-
• tract

Usage notes

The OED's first edition (1908) treated the sense "go over a line again" as a separate headword, re-trace, stressed on the first syllable, against /rɪˈtreɪs/ for the other senses.^[2] Dictionary.com also dates that use separately, to 1750–60.^[9]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House