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Tract vs Essay - What's the difference?

tract | essay | Synonyms |

In obsolete terms the difference between tract and essay

is that tract is to draw out; to protract while essay is a test, experiment; an assay.

tract

English

Etymology 1

From tractus, the perfect passive participle of (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • An area or expanse.
    • an unexplored tract of sea
  • * Milton
    • the deep tract of hell
  • * Addison
    • a very high mountain joined to the mainland by a narrow tract of earth
  • A series of connected body organs, as in the digestive tract .
  • A small booklet such as a pamphlet, often for promotional or informational uses.
  • A brief treatise or discourse on a subject.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • The church clergy at that writ the best collection of tracts against popery that ever appeared.
  • A commentator's view or perspective on a subject.
  • Continued or protracted duration, length, extent
  • * Milton
    • improved by tract of time
  • * 1843 ,
    • Nay, in another case of litigation, the unjust Standard bearer, for his own profit, asserting that the cause belonged not to St. Edmund’s Court, but to his in , involved us in travellings and innumerable expenses, vexing the servants of St. Edmund for a long tract of time
  • Part of the proper of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, used instead of the alleluia during Lenten or pre-Lenten seasons, in a Requiem Mass, and on a few other penitential occasions.
  • (obsolete) Continuity or extension of anything.
    • the tract of speech
    (Older)
  • (obsolete) Traits; features; lineaments.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • The discovery of a man's self by the tracts of his countenance is a great weakness.
  • (obsolete) The footprint of a wild animal.
    • (Dryden)
  • (obsolete) Track; trace.
  • * Sir Thomas Browne
    • Efface all tract of its traduction.
  • * Shakespeare
    • But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on, / Leaving no tract behind.
  • (obsolete) Treatment; exposition.
    • (Shakespeare)
    Related terms
    * tractate noun

    Etymology 2

    From tractus , the participle stem of (etyl) trahere.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To pursue, follow; to track.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.i:
    • Where may that treachour then (said he) be found, / Or by what meanes may I his footing tract ?
  • (obsolete) To draw out; to protract.
    • (Ben Jonson)
    English syncopic forms ----

    essay

    English

    (wikipedia essay)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A written composition of moderate length exploring a particular issue or subject.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-01
    • , author=Katie L. Burke , title=Ecological Dependency , volume=101, issue=1, page=64 , magazine= citation , passage=In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature , David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.”}}
  • (obsolete) A test, experiment; an assay.
  • An attempt.
  • * 1988 , James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom , Oxford 2003, p. 455:
    • This was Lee's first essay in the kind of offensive-defensive strategy that was to become his hallmark.

    Derived terms

    * photo essay

    Related terms

    * essayist * essayistic

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (dated) To try.
  • * 1900 , , The House Behind the Cedars , Chapter II,
    • He retraced his steps to the front gate, which he essayed to open.
  • To move forth, as into battle.

    • Anagrams

    *