track [LME] A 15th-century word that perhaps came from the same Dutch source as trek. The first meaning was ‘a mark or trail left by a person, animal or vehicle’—the sort of tracks used by *trains was first described in 1805. The expression the wrong side of the tracks, ‘a poor or less prestigious part of a town’, originated in America from the idea of a town divided by a railroad track and dates from the early 20th century.