train

Pronunciation

• IPA: /treɪn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English trayne,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French train (“tracks, path, trail of a robe; act of dragging”) (feminine traïne),^[4][2] from traïner (“to pull, drag, draw”) (modern traîner),^[4][5] from Vulgar Latin *tragināre,^[4][2] extended from *tragere “to pull”, a back-formation from tractus, the past participle of Latin trahere (“to pull, draw”).^[4][2] The verb is inherited from Middle English traynen, from the same Old French verb.^[2][6] The word is thus related to trace, trail, tractor, contract and extract.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A drawing out of time, delay: about 1330,^[8] or before 1338 in Mannyng's Chronicle;^[2] the sense is now obsolete.^[4] The verb is first recorded in 1375, “to draw along, allure”, in Barbour's Bruce.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The idea in the word is “that which is drawn along behind”.^[4] From the late 14th century it was the trailing part of a gown or robe, and a retinue or procession;^[4] the retinue gave rise to a line of travelling people or vehicles, and later to any connected series of things, as in train of thought.^[7][9] In clocks and watches it is a set of wheels through which motion passes, by 1797.^[4] A locomotive with its coupled cars is recorded from 1820 (in a text dated 1816)^[4] or before 1824,^[2] at first in phrases such as a train of wagons.^[2] The verb's sense “to direct the growth of a plant” is from the mid-15th century,^[4] and “to instruct, discipline” from 1542,^[2] probably from the earlier sense of drawing out and shaping something into a desired form.^[4][2][7] To exercise oneself for a performance is by 1832,^[4] to aim a gun or camera by 1841,^[4] and to travel by railway from 1856.^[4] Athletes' training shoes were later shortened to trainers.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – delay.^[8]
• 1375 – verb, to draw along, allure.^[2][8]
• late 14th century – trailing part of a gown; a retinue.^[4]
• c. 1440 – a procession.^[2]
• mid-15th century – to direct a plant's growth.^[4]
• 1542 – to instruct, discipline.^[2]
• 1797 – a train of wheels.^[4]
• 1820 – a railway train.^[4]
• 1841 – to aim (a gun).^[4]
• 1856 – to travel by train.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A series of connected railway cars or carriages pulled by a locomotive.
2. A long line of moving people, animals or vehicles.
3. A part of a gown that trails behind the wearer.
4. A group of attendants; a retinue.
5. A connected series of events or ideas: a train of thought.
6. A set of gears or wheels that transmit motion.
7. The vehicles and staff that supply a combat unit.

Verb

1. To teach a skill or behaviour by instruction and practice.
2. To prepare physically for a contest, as by exercise.
3. To make (a plant) grow in a desired shape.
4. To aim or point (a gun, camera or the like).
5. (archaic) To drag or trail.

Word family

• trainability
• trainable
• trainful
• trainless
• aerotrain
• detrain
• housetrain
• hovertrain

Related words

• trail
• trace
• tract
• tractor
• contract
• extract
• attract
• retreat
• portrait

Usage notes

Two other words spelled train are now obsolete: one meant treachery, a trick or a trap, from Old French traïne, from traïr “to betray”,^[10][8][3] and the other was the old name of train oil, from Middle Dutch traen.^[8][10][3] In Lincolnshire, Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire dialect to train a river was to dredge it.^[11]

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 k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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)