trahere

Trahere is a Latin verb meaning to pull, drag, draw, haul, or attract. It is a core example of the third conjugation and is widely used in classical Latin to describe physical pulling as well as figurative drawing or drawing attention. The standard principal parts are trahō, trahere, traxī, tractus, from which most of the tense forms are built.

Conjugation and principal parts: In the present active indicative the forms are traho, trahis, trahit, trahimus, trahitis, trahunt. The imperfect is trahēbam, trahēbās, trahēbat, trahēbāmus, trahēbātis, trahēbant, and the future is traham, trahēs, trahē, trahēmus, trahētis, trahent. The passive voice gives trahor, traheris, trahitur, trahimur, trahiminī, trahuntur. The perfect passive uses the participle tractus with sum (tractus sum, tractus es, tractus est, etc.). The infinitive is trahere; the supine is tractum; the present participle is trahēns.

Usage and examples: Trahere covers literal pulling, such as a ship dragging a rope: Navis funem trahit. It also works with draw or pull from a source, as in Aquam e puteo trahere (to draw water from a well) or Aqua e puteo trahitur a nautis (the water is drawn from the well by sailors) in the passive. Beyond physical pulling, trahere can be used in broader senses related to drawing or attracting in a figurative sense, and it appears in a variety of idiomatic expressions in Latin literature.

Derivatives and related forms: The root trah- has given rise to English derivatives such as tract, traction, tractor, attract, and contract, reflecting its core sense of pulling or drawing.