tract

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
tract1

▶noun

• 1 a large area of land.

• 2 an indefinitely large extent of something.

• 3 a major passage in the body or other continuous elongated anatomical structure.

– origin ME (in the sense ‘duration or course of time’): from L. tractus ‘drawing, draught’, from trahere ‘draw, pull’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
tract2

▶noun a short treatise in pamphlet form, typically on a religious subject.

– origin ME, appar. an abbrev. of L. tractatus (see tractate).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
tract3

▶noun (in the Roman Catholic Church) an anthem of Scriptural verses formerly replacing the alleluia in certain penitential and requiem Masses.

– origin ME: from med. L. tractus (cantus) ‘drawn-out (song)’, past part. of L. trahere ‘draw’.