traquer

Forms

traquer^[1]

Etymology

It is generally taken to be from Middle French trac (“track of animals”), a 15th-century word that also meant “trace”, as in tout à trac.^[2][3][4][5] Bloch and Wartburg call the noun imitative,^[3] and the GLLF and Meyer-Lübke trace the verb to an expressive root trak- suggesting something sudden.^[6][7]

A borrowing from Middle Dutch treck (“a pull, a stroke”) has also been proposed,^[3][2][8] and Wiktionary follows it, deriving the noun from Middle Dutch and Proto-Germanic *trakjaną (“to drag”).^[1] Bloch and Wartburg and Rey reject it: the sense does not fit, and the word is already recorded in the south of France in the 15th century, too early for a southern form borrowed through French.^[3][2] Pierre Guiraud saw instead a Romance verb *tracticō, or a remaking on the noun of a derivative of Latin trahō (“to pull”).^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1460 the Mystère du siège d'Orléans uses it for seizing someone, where the English threaten Joan of Arc: Traquer le feray “I will have her seized” and torn apart by four horses.^[6][2][8] Littré takes it there to mean “to drag”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Before 1577 Rémi Belleau used it for driving flocks before oneself.^[9][2] In the 18th century it became a hunting term, “to pursue game” (1726) and “to beat a wood to drive the game out” (1743, 1771).^[9][5][4]

Saint-Simon is the first to use it of people, “to hunt down someone in flight”;^[2][9] by 1821 it also meant “to harass relentlessly”,^[9] and in 1839 Balzac applied it to things one seeks to stamp out.^[9] The participle gave comme un animal traqué (1874) and regard traqué (about 1911).^[9] Bloch and Wartburg note that the English verb track is held to be borrowed from French.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1460 – First recorded in the Mystère du siège d'Orléans, “to seize”.^[6][2]
• before 1577 – Belleau uses traquant of a shepherd driving his flock.^[9][8]
• 1726 – Un chevreuil traqué: first used of hunted game.^[9]
• 1740–1755 – Saint-Simon uses it of a person hunted down.^[9]
• 1743 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux records the hunting senses.^[5][4][6]
• 1821 – Morellet uses it for relentless persecution.^[9]
• 1913 – Air de bête traquée in Alain-Fournier.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (hunting) To beat a wood to drive the game out, closing the circle around it, and to drive the game towards the hunters.^[4][9][8]
2. To hunt down a person, pursuing them with no way of escape: les journalistes traquaient le ministre.^[4][9]
3. To harass relentlessly.^[9][6]
4. To fight something, to try to make it disappear: traquer les erreurs.^[9]
5. Traqué (participle): hunted, frightened: une bête traquée, un regard traqué.^[4][9]

Word family

• tracasser
• traqueur

Related words

• trac

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8846
8. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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