different between trace vs smack

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?e?s/, [t??e?s]
• Rhymes: -e?s

Etymology 1

From Middle English trace, traas, from Old French trace (“an outline, track, trace”), from the verb (see below).

Noun

trace (countable and uncountable, plural traces)

1. An act of tracing.

2. An enquiry sent out for a missing article, such as a letter or an express package.
3. A mark left as a sign of passage of a person or animal.
4. A residue of some substance or material.

5. A very small amount.

6. (electronics) A current-carrying conductive pathway on a printed circuit board.
7. An informal road or prominent path in an arid area.
8. One of two straps, chains, or ropes of a harness, extending from the collar or breastplate to a whippletree attached to a vehicle or thing to be drawn; a tug.
9. (engineering) A connecting bar or rod, pivoted at each end to the end of another piece, for transmitting motion, especially from one plane to another; specifically, such a piece in an organ stop action to transmit motion from the trundle to the lever actuating the stop slider.
10. (fortification) The ground plan of a work or works.
11. (geometry) The intersection of a plane of projection, or an original plane, with a coordinate plane.
13. (mathematics) The sum of the diagonal elements of a square matrix.
14. (grammar) An empty category occupying a position in the syntactic structure from which something has been moved, used to explain constructions such as wh-movement and the passive.

Synonyms

• (mark left as a sign of passage of a person or animal): track, trail
• (small amount): see also Thesaurus:modicum.

Derived terms

• downtrace, uptrace
• without trace, without a trace

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English tracen, from Old French tracer, trasser (“to delineate, score, trace", also, "to follow, pursue”), probably a conflation of Vulgar Latin *tracti? (“to delineate, score, trace”), from Latin trahere (“to draw”); and Old French traquer (“to chase, hunt, pursue”), from trac (“a track, trace”), from Middle Dutch treck, treke (“a drawing, draft, delineation, feature, expedition”). More at track.

Verb

trace (third-person singular simple present traces, present participle tracing, simple past and past participle traced)

1. (transitive) To follow the trail of.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cowper to this entry?)

2. To follow the history of.
   • 1684, Thomas Burnet, The Sacred Theory of the Earth

     You may trace the deluge quite round the globe.
3. (transitive) To draw or sketch lightly or with care.

   He carefully traced the outlines of the old building before him.

4. (transitive) To copy onto a sheet of paper superimposed over the original, by drawing over its lines.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To copy; to imitate.
   • 1647, John Denham, To Sir Richard Fanshaw

     That servile path thou nobly dost decline, / Of tracing word by word, and line by line.

6. (intransitive, obsolete) To walk; to go; to travel.
7. (transitive, obsolete) To walk over; to pass through; to traverse.
8. (computing, transitive) To follow the execution of the program by making it to stop after every instruction, or by making it print a message after every step.

Related terms

• tracing

Translations

Anagrams

• Carte, acter, caret, carte, cater, crate, creat, react, recta, reäct

French

Etymology

From the verb tracer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?as/
• Rhymes: -as

Noun

trace f (plural traces)

1. trace
2. track
3. (mathematics) trace

Derived terms

• trace de freinage

Verb

trace

1. first-person singular present indicative of tracer
2. third-person singular present indicative of tracer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of tracer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of tracer
5. second-person singular imperative of tracer

Further reading

• “trace” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• caret, carte, créât, écart, terça

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?tra.t??e/
• Hyphenation: trà?ce

Etymology 1

From Latin thr?cem, accusative form of thr?x, from Ancient Greek ???? (Thrâix).

Adjective

trace (plural traci)

1. (literary) Thracian

Noun

trace m (plural traci)

1. (historical) A person from or an inhabitant of Thrace.

   Synonym: tracio

trace m (uncountable)

1. The Thracian language.

Related terms

• tracio
• Tracia

Etymology 2

From Latin thraecem, accusative form of thraex, from Ancient Greek ???? (Thrâix).

Noun

trace m (plural traci)

1. (historical, Ancient Rome) A gladiator bearing Thracian equipment.

Anagrams

• carte, certa, cetra

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French trace, from tracer, tracier.

Alternative forms

• traas, trase

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?tra?s(?)/

Noun

trace (plural traces) (mostly Late ME)

1. A trail, track or road; a pathway or route:
   1. An track that isn't demarcated; an informal pathway.
   2. A trace; a trail of evidence left of something's presence.
2. One's lifepath or decisions; one's chosen actions.
3. Stepping or movement of feet, especially during dancing.
4. (rare, heraldry) A straight mark.

Derived terms

• tracen
• tracyng

Descendants

• English: trace
• Scots: trace

References

• “tr?ce, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-18.

Etymology 2

Verb

trace

1. Alternative form of tracen

Old French

Etymology

From the verb tracier, tracer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?tra.t?s?/

Noun

trace f (oblique plural traces, nominative singular trace, nominative plural traces)

1. trace (markings showing where one has been)

Descendants

• ? Middle English: trace
  • English: trace
• French: trace

Spanish

Verb

trace

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of trazar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of trazar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of trazar.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /smæk/
• Rhymes: -æk

Etymology 1

From Middle English smac, smak, smacke, from Old English smæc, smæ?? (“taste, smatch”), from Proto-Germanic *smakkuz (“a taste”), from Proto-Indo-European *smeg?-, *smeg- (“to taste”). Cognate with English dialectal smatch, Scots smak (“scent, smell, taste, flavour”), Saterland Frisian Smoak (“taste”), West Frisian smaak (“taste”), Dutch smaak (“taste”), German Schmack, Geschmack (“taste”), Swedish and Norwegian smak (“taste”), Norwegian smekke . Akin to Old English smæ??an (“to taste, smack”). More at smake, smatch.

Noun

smack (countable and uncountable, plural smacks)

1. A distinct flavor, especially if slight.

   rice pudding with a smack of cinnamon
2. A slight trace of something; a smattering.
   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

     He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about him too.

3. (slang, uncountable) Heroin.
4. (Northern England) A form of fried potato; a scallop.

Derived terms

• foresmack
• smackless

Translations

Verb

smack (third-person singular simple present smacks, present participle smacking, simple past and past participle smacked)

1. (transitive) To get the flavor of.
   • 1827, Thomas Carlyle (translator), Johann August Musæus, "Melechsala" (1782-86); in German Romance I. 175

     He soon smacked the taste of physic hidden in this sweetness.

2. (intransitive) To indicate or suggest something; used with of.

   Her reckless behavior smacks of pride.
3. (intransitive) To have a particular taste; used with of.
   • 1820-25, Charles Lamb, Essays of Elia

     He had his tea and hot rolls in a morning, while we were battening upon our quarter-of-a-penny loaf — our crug — moistened with attenuated small beer, in wooden piggings, smacking of the pitched leathern jack it was poured from.

Derived terms

• smack of

Etymology 2

From Middle Low German smack (Low German Schmacke, Schmaake (“small ship”)) or Dutch smak, perhaps ultimately related to smakken, imitative of the sails' noise.

Noun

smack (plural smacks)

2. A small sailing vessel, commonly rigged as a sloop, used chiefly in the coasting and fishing trade and often called a fishing smack
3. A group of jellyfish.

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “smack”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Etymology 3

From Middle Dutch smacken, of imitative origin.

Akin to German schmatzen (“eat noisily”), Dutch smakken (“to fling down”), Plautdietsch schmaksen (“to smack the lips”), regional German schmacken, Schmackes (“vigour”) (compare Swedish smak (“slap”), Middle Low German smacken, the first part of Saterland Frisian smakmuulje (“smack”)).

Noun

smack (plural smacks)

1. A sharp blow; a slap. See also: spank.
2. The sound of a loud kiss.
3. A quick, sharp noise, as of the lips when suddenly separated, or of a whip.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

smack (third-person singular simple present smacks, present participle smacking, simple past and past participle smacked)

1. To slap or hit someone.
2. To make a smacking sound.
   • 1832, Banjamin Disraeli, Contarini Fleming

     A horse neighed, and a whip smacked, there was a whistle, and the sound of a cart wheel.

3. (New Zealand) To strike a child (usually on the buttocks) as a form of discipline. (US spank)
4. To wetly separate the lips, making a noise, after tasting something or in expectation of a treat.
   • 1763, Robert Lloyd, “A Familiar Epistle” in St. James Magazine:

     But when, obedient to the mode / Of panegyric, courtly ode / The bard bestrides, his annual hack, / In vain I taste, and sip and smack, / I find no flavour of the Sack.

5. To kiss with a close compression of the lips, so as to make a sound when they separate.

Translations

Adverb

smack (not comparable)

1. As if with a smack or slap; smartly; sharply.

   Right smack bang in the middle.

Derived terms

• smack-dab

Further reading

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

Anagrams

• macks

Swedish

Noun

smack n

1. (in the phrase "inte ett smack") smidgeon, piece, small bit

See also

• inte ett smack

Anagrams

• macks