Traces

trace 1 |trās|
noun1 a mark, object, or other indication of the existence or passing of something : remove all traces of the old adhesive | the aircraft disappeared without trace.• a beaten path or small road; a track.• a physical change in the brain presumed to be caused by a process of learning or memory.• a procedure to investigate the source of something, such as the place from which a telephone call was made, or the origin of an error in a computer program.2 a very small quantity, esp. one too small to be accurately measured : his body contained traces of amphetamines [as adj. ] : trace quantities of PCBs.• a slight indication or barely discernible hint of something : just a trace of a smile.3 a line or pattern displayed by an instrument using a moving pen or a luminous spot on a screen to show the existence or nature of something that is being investigated.• a line that represents the projection of a curve or surface on a plane or the intersection of a curve or surface with a plane.4 Mathematics the sum of the elements in the principle diagonal of a square matrix.

Traces 3, from charcoal

Traces 5, from charcoal

Traces  1, from charcoal

You might wonder why every so often I post the dictionary explanation of words, well first of all I love this kind of thing, the actual way the people that create dictionaries place the text. And because I am dyslectic I have always had to have a dictionary about. Over the years I keep adding to that stack, lots of old ones purchased at rummage sales, flea markets and library sales.

Philosophers have found words objects of fascination since at least the 5th century BC, with the foundation of the philosophy of language. Plato analyzed words in terms of their origins and the sounds making them up, concluding that there was some connection between sound and meaning, though words change a great deal over time. John Locke wrote that the use of words "is to be sensible marks of ideas", though they are chosen "not by any natural connexion that there is between particular articulate sounds and certain ideas, for then there would be but one language amongst all men; but by a voluntary imposition, whereby such a word is made arbitrarily the mark of such an idea".^[6] Wittgenstein's thought transitioned from a word as representation of meaning to "the meaning of a word is its use in the language." [from Wikipedia]