trait

Borrowed from Middle French trait (“line, feature”), from Latin tractus (“drawing, pulling”), from Latin trahō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tregʰ- (“to drag, pull?”), perhaps a variation of *dʰregʰ- (“to pull, draw, drag”). Doublet of tract.

• IPA^(key): /tɹeɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (traditional British pronunciation, now virtually obsolete) enPR: trā, IPA^(key): /tɹeɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪt, -eɪ
• Homophones: tray, trey (one pronunciation)

trait (plural traits)

1. (biology, psychology) An identifying characteristic, habit or trend.

   Synonym: characteristic

   inherited traits and acquired traits

   The number one personality trait I hate is hypocrisy. Why can't you be consistent!?

   • 1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Truth:

     The English, of all classes, value themselves on this trait, as distinguishing them from the French, who, in the popular belief, are more polite than true.

   • 1916, John Dewey, Democracy and Education:

     The positive and constructive aspect of possibility gives the key to understanding the two chief traits of immaturity, dependence and plasticity.

   • 2003, Robert S. Siegler, Judy S. DeLoache, Nancy Eisenberg, How Children Develop, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 89:

     Turning to our second trait, if you have straight hair, then both of your parents must carry an allele for this trait.

2. (object-oriented programming) An uninstantiable collection of methods that provides functionality to a class by using the class’s own interface.

   Coordinate terms: mixin, interface, class

   Traits are somewhat between an interface and a mixin.

   • 2006, Nathaniel J. Nystrom, Programming languages for scalable software extension and composition‎^[1]:

     Traits are parametrized on other methods, which must be provided to create a class using the trait. Using a trait-like mechanism to compose large collections of mutually-dependent classes or traits could lead to parameter explosion.

• “trait”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
•   trait on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
•   phenotypic trait on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
•   trait (computer programming) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Attri, Ratti, ittar, tiatr

• IPA^(key): /tʁɛ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: traie, traient, traies, trais, traits, très

Inherited from Old French trait, from Latin tractus.

trait m (plural traits)

1. line
2. trait
3. color of a mineral
4. (dated) the action of hauling or pulling (by an animal of burden)
5. (dated) straps or cords placed on an animal of burden and attached to the vehicle which the animal pulls
6. (obsolete) an action reflecting a favorable or adverse intention by one person toward another
7. a remarkable or influential historical event
8. a particular passage in a speech that is well-written; an excellent or appealing characteristic of a speech
9. a vibrant, brilliant, or innovative idea
10. (religion) verses sung in a Mass between the gradual and the gospel reading
11. connection or link between one thing and another
12. (geology) color of the dust produced by a mineral
13. (chess, checkers) the privilege of taking the first turn/move
14. (oriented-object programming) trait

• avoir trait à
• cheval de trait
• forcer le trait
• grossir le trait
• tirer un trait
• trait d’esprit
• trait d’union
• trait pour trait

• traire
• traiter
• traité

trait (feminine traite, masculine plural traits, feminine plural traites)

1. past participle of traire

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

trait

1. inflection of traire:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. third-person singular past historic

• “trait”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• tarit, tarît, tirât, titra, triât