Tract
late Middle English (in the sense ‘duration or course of time’): from Latin tractus ‘drawing, draught’, from trahere ‘draw, pull’.
wiktionary
From tractate, from Latin tractatus, or borrowed from Latin tractus, the perfect passive participle of trahō. Doublet of trait.
From Latin tractus, the participle stem of trahere(“to pull, drag”).
etymonline
tract (n.1)
"area," mid-15c., "period or lapse of time," from Latin tractus "track, course, space, duration," lit, "a drawing out or pulling," from stem of trahere "to pull, draw," from PIE root *tragh- "to draw, drag, move" (source also of Slovenian trag "trace, track," Middle Irish tragud "ebb;" perhaps with a variant form *dhragh-; see drag (v.)). The meaning "stretch of land or water" is first recorded 1550s. Specific U.S. sense of "plot of land for development" is recorded from 1912; tract housing attested from 1953.
tract (n.2)
"little book, treatise" mid-12c., probably a shortened form of Latin tractatus "a handling, treatise, treatment," from tractare "to handle" (see treat (v.)). Related: Tractarian.
