track: [15] Track was borrowed from Old French trac ‘trail, set of footprints, etc’. This too appears to have been a loanword, from Middle Dutch trek ‘pulling’ (ultimate source of English trek [19], via Afrikaans), which was derived from the verb trekken ‘pull’. The sense ‘path’ did not emerge until as recently as the 19th century. => trek
track (n.)
late 15c., "footprint, mark left by anything," from Old French trac "track of horses, trace" (mid-15c.), possibly from a Germanic source (compare Middle Low German treck, Dutch trek "drawing, pulling;" see trek). Meaning "lines of rails for drawing trains" is from 1805. Meaning "branch of athletics involving a running track" is recorded from 1905. Meaning "single recorded item" is from 1904, originally in reference to phonograph records. Meaning "mark on skin from repeated drug injection" is first attested 1964.
Track record (1955) is a figurative use from racing, "performance history" of an individual car, runner, horse, etc. (1907, but the phrase was more common in sense "fastest speed recorded at a particular track"). To make tracks "move quickly" is American English colloquial first recorded 1835; to cover (one's) tracks in the figurative sense first attested 1898; to keep track of something is attested from 1883. American English wrong side of the tracks "bad part of town" is by 1901. Track lighting attested from 1970.
track (v.)
"to follow or trace the footsteps of," 1560s, from track (n.). Meaning "leave a footprint trail in dirt, mud, etc." is from 1838. Of film and TV cameras, 1959. Related: Tracked; tracking.
实用例句
1. Dozens of miles of railway track have been torn up.
好几十英里的铁轨被毁坏了。
来自柯林斯例句
2. She had spent years trying to track down her parents.
她已经花了好多年时间试图追寻父母的下落。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Across the river the railway track ran up to the pithead.
铁轨跨过这条河直达矿井口。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The title track is a pointed meditation on a continent gone wrong.
主打歌是对一个误入歧途的大陆的深刻沉思。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The job needs someone with a good track record in investment.
