tractile

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English

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WOTD – 16 January 2023

Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Late Latin tractilis (“that can be dragged or pulled”) + English -ile (suffix meaning ‘capable of; tending to’). Tractilis is derived from Latin tractus + -ilis (suffix forming adjectives from the perfect passive participles of verbs); and tractus is the perfect passive participle of trahō (“to drag, pull; to draw out, extend, lengthen, prolong”),[1][2] probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to drag, pull; to run”).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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tractile (comparative more tractile, superlative most tractile)

  1. Capable of being drawn or stretched out in length.
    Synonyms: ductile, tensile
    Antonyms: intractile, irretractile
    • 1607, Edward Topsell, “Of the dormouse”, in The Historie of Fovre-footed Beastes. […], London: […] William Iaggard, →OCLC, page 527:
      Becauſe it [the dormouse] dravveth the hinder legges after it like a Hare, it is called Animal tractile, for it goeth by iumpes and little leapes.
    • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “IX. Century. [Experiment Solitary Touching Alterations, which may be Called Maiors.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC, page 213:
      The Conſiſtences of Bodies are very diuers: […] Fragile, Tough; Flexible, Inflexible; Tractile, or to be dravvne forth in length, Intractile; […]
    • 1874, S[eneca] R[ay] Stoddard, “Lake Champlain”, in The Adirondacks: Illustrated, Albany, N.Y.: Weed, Parsons, & Co., →OCLC, page 34:
      [H]e carried a piece [of the iron ore] to a blacksmith forge, and ascertained that it was of a very fine, tractile quality: […]
    • 1906, Wallace Irwin, “The Poet and the Gas Man”, in Random Rhymes and Odd Numbers, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 79:
      “Oh, Gas Man, Gas Man, answer me— / My lines are long and tractile— / Which kind of meter would you see, / A spondee or a dactyl?”
    • 1916, B[yron] G. R. Williams, “Microscopic Uranalyses”, in Practical Uranalyses, St. Louis, Mo.: C. V. Mosby Company, →OCLC, page 126:
      Mucus is cohesive and tractile, and is not very adhesive or brittle (even when considerably desiccated) as are the casts commonly referred to as true casts.
    • 1983, R. A. Lawrie, D. A. Ledward, “Texturization of Recovered Proteins”, in D. A. Ledward, A. J. Taylor, R. A. Lawrie, editors, Upgrading Waste for Feeds and Food, London: Butterworths, →ISBN, part III (Manipulation and Modification of Food Waste), page 171:
      Under these conditions starchy components gelatinize, proteins denature and the tractile components are restructured and/or aligned.
  2. Pertaining to traction or pulling.
    Synonyms: tractional, tractive
    • 1852, Sherard Osborn, Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal; or, Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklin’s Expedition, in the Years 1850–51, New York, N.Y.: George P[almer] Putnam, […], →OCLC, page 137:
      Kites, which the kind Mr. Benjamin Smith had supplied me with, as a tractile power to assist us in dragging sledges, as well as a means of signalizing between parties, afforded much interest, […]
    • 1860, Henry David Thoreau, Journal entry dated 25 March, 1860, in Bradford Torrey (ed.), The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Journal, December 1, 1859–July 31, 1860, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906, p. 221,[1]
      The sleighing, the sledding, or sliding, is gone. We now begin to wheel or roll ourselves and commodities along, which requires more tractile power.
    • 1880, Henry G. Landis, “Introduction”, in How to Use the Forceps. […], New York, N.Y.: E. B. Treat, […], →OCLC, part II (The Forceps), page 130:
      The tractile efforts should be made during the continuance of the labor pains, if the latter are frequent and regular, and suspended in the interval between them.
    • 1989, Primo Levi, “Five Intimate Interviews”, in Raymond Rosenthal, transl., The Mirror Maker: Stories & Essays […], New York, N.Y.: Schocken Books, →ISBN, page 33:
      I bet that, big as you are, you could not withstand the tractile force of one of my [a mole's] hands.
  3. (dated) Capable of being guided, influenced, or led.
    Synonyms: tractable; see also Thesaurus:moldable, Thesaurus:obedient
    • 1743, Aaron Hill, “Canto IV”, in The Fanciad. An Heroic Poem. […], London: […] J. Osborn, →OCLC, page 34, lines 95–98:
      To Bribes, unbow'd: yet ductile in Command: / Their Heart, their Country's—and their King's, their Hand, // STILL-but how chang'd! -thus, thus, were Armies taught; / Un-paid, thus tractile; and thus rais'd, un-bought: […]
    • 1903, Mary Austin, “The Mesa Trail”, in The Land of Little Rain, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 156:
      It appears that shepherds have not changed more than sheep in the process of time. The shy hairy men who herd the tractile flocks might be, except for some added clothing, the very brethren of David.
    • 1908, Henry L[ouis] Mencken, “[Nietzsche the Philosopher.] Government.”, in The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, Boston, Mass.: Luce and Company, →OCLC, page 197:
      [T]his would re-establish the law of natural selection firmly upon its disputed throne, and so the strong would grow ever stronger and more efficient, and the weak would grow ever more obedient and tractile.
    • 1955 November 19, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters”, in Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, published 1959, →OCLC, page 29:
      [A]bruptly, his head craned into the limited space between Mrs. Silsburn and me. "Driver," he said peremptorily, and waited for a response. When it came with promptness, his voice became a bit more tractile, democratic: "How long do you think we'll be tied up here?"
  4. (obsolete, rare) Of financial assets: able to be drawn or procured from a place of deposit; liquid.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Compare “tractile, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2021.
  2. ^ “tractile, adj.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.

Anagrams

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