It’s not unusual to see the words “tract” and “track” confused; people use “track” where they mean “tract”, and (less often) talk about “tracts” that are really “tracks”. Maybe they shouldn’t be blamed too much, though, because the history of “track” and “tract” is pretty tangled and involves some weird coincidences.
Both words appeared in English around the same time, sometime in the 1400s. “Tract” comes from the Latin word “tractus” meaning “pulling, dragging, or trailing.” “Track” is probably Germanic, from the Middle German “trek,” ALSO meaning “pull or haul.” So there are two coincidences right there: both words appeared in English around the same time, and their original meanings are nearly the same.
“Track” came to be used to mean “the mark on the ground by anything hauled or dragged”, and that’s where we get the modern meaning of track as a path or trail.
Early in its English career, “tract,” too, meant a path or even just a slight mark left behind, such as a footprint. Today we use the related word “trace” for that.
However, there might actually be ANOTHER word “tract” that also entered the language in the 1400s, and this one comes from the only-one-letter-different Latin word “tractatus,” which meant “discussion or treatise”. This other word “tract” was used for a piece of writing such as a newsletter or pamphlet. This version of “tract” survives intact, and is mostly used now to refer to “religious tracts;” pamphlets used to try to convert people’s beliefs from rooting for the Jets to the Giants. Or I think it’s something like that.
Of the two words (well, okay, technically there are three), “track” has proved to be more versatile. It can mean a route of travel, a course of action, a path, a railway, a race course, it can have to do with athletics, music, and even a set of educational classes leading in a particular direction, such as the “pre-law track” or the “pre-med track.” That last area is where you’re most likely to see “tract” used in place of “track”; even some colleges refer to those things as pre-med or pre-law “tracts.” “Track” is most often used by mistake when referring to land — a “tract” is a parcel of land, and you’ll sometimes see “tracks of land” referred to. “Tract” can also mean an anatomical structure, and sometimes you see a mention like “gastrointestinal track” instead of “tract”.
There are other cases of confusion, of course, and once you get on track noticing them, it’ll start to seem like these mistakes occur everywhere! On the other hand, this is English. If enough people consistently make the same “mistake,” it’s not a mistake any more; the language just adopts the new usage. Or wait, do I mean “adapts?”
