trait
trait / trāt/ • n. a distinguishing quality or characteristic, typically one belonging to a person: he was a letter-of-the-law man, a common trait among coaches. ∎ a genetically determined characteristic.ORIGIN: mid 16th cent.: from French, from Latin tractus ‘drawing, pulling’ (see tract1 ). An early sense was ‘stroke of the pen or pencil in a picture,’ giving rise to the sense ‘a particular feature of mind or character’ (mid 18th cent.).
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