tracer

Forms

tracer^[1] Old French tracier;^[2][3] Anglo-Norman also has tracher, traser and trazer.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French tracier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *tractiō (“to follow the track, to make a track”).^{[5][2][6][1][7]} The Vulgar Latin verb was formed from Latin tractus (“a drawing, a dragging”), from the supine of trahō (“to draw, drag”).^[5][2][3] Its meaning is inferred from the earliest French senses, “to follow a trail” and “to make a track”.^[5][2][6] Littré, after Diez, took “to make a line” as the first sense, from which “to follow a trail, to search” would have come.^[8]

Cognate with Catalan trassar, Spanish trazar, Portuguese traçar and Italian tracciare.^[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the first half of the 12th century in the Oxford Psalter, meaning “to try to follow the trail of”; in 1176 Chrétien de Troyes uses it in Cligès for tracking animals.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle French the verb meant “to track, to follow the trail of”, a sense kept into the 16th century (“to search”, 1538) and surviving in hunting language.^[2][5] From the 13th century it was also used, transitively and intransitively, for “to run, to roam through (a region), to travel”, a value revived in the familiar tracer “to go fast” (1893).^[2][5] By a shift from the track to the drawn line, it meant “to strike through, to cross out” (1439), a sense lost in France but alive in Switzerland.^[2][5]

The modern use, in which the idea of a line dominates, became established in the 16th century.^[6][2] In 1552 Ronsard uses it for marking out a path by making a track and for describing in writing, and tracer la voie “to show the way to follow” is recorded in 1563.^[5] It is used of drawing a line from 1588, and of lines of writing from 1625; in the 19th century it became a technical term for marking out the shape of a piece to be worked (1876).^[5][2] The intransitive uses for roots that spread horizontally (1694) and for animals digging shallow tunnels (1810) keep the old idea of making a track.^[5][6][2]

Timeline

• 1100–1150 – First recorded in the Oxford Psalter, “to follow the trail”.^[5]
• 1176 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it for tracking animals.^[5]
• 13th century – Used for “to run, to roam”.^[2]
• 1439 – First recorded meaning “to cross out”.^[5][2]
• 1552 – Ronsard uses it for marking out a path and for describing in writing.^[5]
• 1563 – Tracer la voie “to show the way” is recorded.^[5]
• 1588 – Tracer une ligne appears in Montaigne.^[5]
• 1694 – Used of roots that spread horizontally.^[5]
• 1810 – Used of animals digging shallow tunnels.^[5]
• 1876 – Technical sense “to mark out the shape of a piece”.^[5]
• 1893 – Familiar sense “to go fast”.^[5][2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (obsolete) To track, follow the trail of, pursue.^[9][5]
2. To open or mark out (a path) by making a track.^[9][5] (figurative) Tracer la voie, le chemin: to show the way, to set an example.^[9][5]
3. To draw (a line) on paper or on the ground; to form (letters, figures) with lines; to write.^[9][5]
4. (dated) To outline or sketch.^[9][2]
5. (technical) To mark out the shape and dimensions of a piece to be worked.^[5][2]
6. (intransitive, familiar) To go very fast, to rush.^[9][5] Il a fallu tracer pour attraper le train.^[9][5]
7. (intransitive, botany) Of roots: to spread horizontally near the surface.^[9][5][8]
8. (intransitive) Of small animals: to dig shallow tunnels.^[5][8]

Word family

• trace
• retracer
• tracé
• traçoir

Related words

• trait
• traire
• Latin trahō

Usage notes

In Swiss French the old sense “to cross out” survives.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/ii, 143b
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert