trarre

Forms

trarre (first-person singular present tràggo, first-person singular past historic tràssi, past participle tràtto, first-person singular imperfect traévo, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin trahō (“to pull, drag”), with the regular loss of the vowel after the stress and the ⟨r⟩ doubled to make up for it.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The old language also had Old Italian traere and Old Italian traggere; the forms with ⟨g⟩ presuppose a spoken Latin *tragere for the classical verb, which Wiktionary records as Early Medieval Latin.^[7][8][1][6]

The verb is pan-Romance: French traire (“to milk”), Occitan traire, Catalan traure, Spanish traer (“to bring”), Portuguese trazer (“to bring”), Sardinian traer and Romanian trage.^[3][9] Its many Latin senses continue in the dialects and the other Romance languages; the sense “to throw, shoot” comes from drawing a bow.^[2] Venetian tragante (“hunter”) belongs here.^[2][9]

The origin of the Latin verb is obscure, with no sure Indo-European comparisons.^[2][3] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *traχe/o- and finds the closest cognates in Celtic, Old Irish words for “ran away” and “ebb” that go back to “to pull away”.^[10] Devoto notes that Germanic forms are only roughly comparable, since they need an initial ⟨dh-⟩.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEI records the reflexive in the 13th century in Jacopone da Todi.^[7] DELI's earliest senses are in Dante (1300–1313), “to bring, lead”, also figuratively, and “to deduce”, and in Giordano da Pisa (1305–1306), “to take out” and “to obtain, derive”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante (1313–1319) uses trarre for pulling something from place to place, for bringing someone from one state to another, for throwing, and intransitively for hurrying to a place.^[2] Petrarch has “to drag” in 1374, and Boccaccio “to extract”.^[2] A passage of the Vitae Patrum (about 550) shows the Latin verb used for drawing a bow, the origin of the sense “to throw”: Pone sagittam in arcu tuo, et trahe “put an arrow to your bow and draw”.^[2] The verb also came to mean spending one's days, as in Leopardi's Così quegl’ineffabili / giorni, o mio cor, traevi “so, my heart, you spent those unspeakable days”.^[4][11]

Commercial language used trarre for drawing a bill of exchange, recorded in 1857; the bill itself, tratta, is short for lettera tratta and appears in 1586.^[2][3] Tratta as the trade in slaves is recorded in 1765, and tratta delle bianche “white slavery” in 1908, after French traite des blanches.^[2] Today the verb is literary: everyday Italian says tirare, trascinare, cavare or togliere.^[11][12]

Timeline

• 13th century – Jacopone da Todi uses the reflexive trarsi.^[7]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses trarre for “to lead” and “to deduce”.^[2]
• 1305–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses it for “to take out” and “to derive”.^[2]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses it for “to throw” and for “to hurry to a place”.^[2]
• 1374 – Petrarch uses it for “to drag”.^[2]
• 1586 – tratta “bill of exchange” is recorded.^[2]
• 1765 – tratta di negri “slave trade” is recorded.^[2]
• 1857 – the banking sense “to draw a bill” is recorded.^[2]
• 1908 – tratta delle bianche is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) To pull or drag someone or something: trarre in secco la barca.^[4][13][14]
2. To take someone or something to a place, often by force: L'uomo fu tratto in caserma.^[4][13][15]
3. To bring into a state or condition: trarre in salvo, to rescue;^[4][13][14] trarre in inganno, to deceive;^[4][13][14] trarre in errore, to mislead.^[4][13][14]
4. To drive or induce someone to do something.^[4][13][5]
5. To take out, extract: trarre la spada dal fodero.^[4][5][15]
6. To get someone out of a difficult situation: trarre un amico dai guai.^[4][5][15]
7. To obtain, derive, also figuratively: trarre profitto, un film tratto da un romanzo.^[4][5][15]
8. To deduce, draw (a conclusion, an idea).^[4][2]
9. (literary) To spend (one's days), often with toil.^[4][14][11]
10. (banking) To draw a bill of exchange.^[2]

Word family

• traente
• tratta
• trattario
• tratto
• trattore
• trattura
• tratturo
• trazione
• strattone
• strattonare
• sottrarre
• contrarre
• rattrarre
• tranne

Related words

• tracciare
• trainare
• trascinare
• trattare
• trattivo
• trama
• attrarre
• distrarre
• estrarre
• ritrarre
• Latin trahō

Usage notes

Il dado è tratto “the die is cast” is a set phrase.^[13] The present and imperative have -gg- (traggo, traggono), and the other forms come from the old infinitive traere (traevo, traendo).^[11][12]

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 q r s t Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3866
8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana