train [ME] Before railways were invented in the early 19th century, train followed a different track. Early senses included ‘a trailing part of a robe’ and ‘a retinue’, which gave rise to ‘a line of travelling people or vehicles’, and later ‘a connected series of things’, as in train of thought [all LME]. To train could mean ‘to cause a plant to grow in a desired shape’, which was the basis of the sense ‘to instruct’. The word is from Latin trahere ‘to pull, draw’, and so is related to word such as trace [ME] originally a path someone is drawn along, trail [ME] originally in the sense ‘to tow’, tractor [L18th] ‘something that pulls’, contract [ME] ‘draw together’, and extract [LME] ‘draw out’. Trainspotting has been used of the hobby since the late 1950s. Trainers were originally training shoes, soft shoes without spikes or studs worn by athletes or sports players for training rather than the sport itself. The short form began to replace the longer one in the late 1970s.