Meaning

noun a just detectable amount

noun an indication that something has been present

noun a suggestion of some quality

originFrom Middle English tracen, from Old French tracer, trasser (“to delineate, score, trace", also, "to follow, pursue”), probably a conflation of Vulgar Latin *tractiō (“to delineate, score, trace”), from Latin trahere (“to draw”); and Old French traquer (“to chase, hunt, pursue”), from trac (“a track, trace”), from Middle Dutch treck, treke (“a drawing, draft, delineation, feature, expedition”).…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0