Etymologically
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train

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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
  • 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)