trait

views updated Jun 27 2018

trait / trāt/ • n. a distinguishing quality or characteristic, typically one belonging to a person: he was a letter-of-the-law man, a common trait among coaches. ∎  a genetically determined characteristic.ORIGIN: mid 16th cent.: from French, from Latin tractus ‘drawing, pulling’ (see tract1 ). An early sense was ‘stroke of the pen or pencil in a picture,’ giving rise to the sense ‘a particular feature of mind or character’ (mid 18th cent.).

trait

views updated May 17 2018

trait Any detectable phenotypic property of an organism; a character.

trait

views updated May 14 2018

trait Any detectable phenotypic property of an organism; a character.

trait

views updated May 23 2018

trait †stroke XVI; feature, characteristic XVIII. — F. :- L. tractus drawing, draught (see TRACT2).

trait

views updated May 18 2018

trait Any detectable phenotypic property of an organism; a character.

trait

views updated May 18 2018

trait See PERSONALITY.