traction
/ˈtrækʃən/noun
mass noun
1
- the action of drawing or pulling a thing over a surface, especially a road or track（尤指在道路、轨道上）拖拉, 牵引：
a primitive vehicle used in animal traction.
用畜力拖拉的原始车辆。
1.1
- motive power provided for such movement, especially on a railway（尤指在铁路上的）牵引力, 拉力：
the changeover to diesel and electric traction.
向柴油机和电力牵引的大转变。
1.2
- locomotives collectively机车总称。
2
- the grip of a tyre on a road or a wheel on a rail（汽车轮胎、火车车轮的）附着摩擦力：
his car hit a patch of ice and lost traction.
他的车开到了一片冰上, 打起滑来了。
3
- the extent to which an idea, product, etc. gains popularity or acceptance（想法、产品等的） 知名度, 受欢迎度：
analysts predicted that the technology would rapidly gain traction in the corporate mobile market.
分析人士预测这项技术将会迅速地在商业手机市场受到欢迎。
4
- Medicine the application of a sustained pull on a limb or muscle, especially in order to maintain the position of a fractured bone or to correct a deformity【医】（尤指治疗骨折及畸形的）牵引（术）：
his leg is in traction.
他的腿正在作牵引治疗。
WORD TRENDS
Fast cars and successful businesses seem to go together， so it's appropriate that the world of commerce has borrowed expressions from the road. Traction still has its literal senses of 'the action of pulling something'and 'the grip of a tyre on the road'， with traction control the most common compound in the Oxford English Corpus. The new figurative sense， which refers to the popularity and success of a product or service， is steadily rising in use， however， with the commonest accompanying verbs being gain， get， and lose: they are losing traction in foreign markets ｜ his product has gained national traction. The sense can now also express progress in any sphere or the extent to which an idea has been accepted by the general public: polls in key states showed he wasn't gaining traction ｜ deranged conspiracy theories which are circulating through the media and have now gained serious traction.
词源
late Middle English （denoting contraction, such as that of a muscle）： from French, or from medieval Latin tractio-（n-）, from Latin trahere 'draw, pull'. Current senses date from the early 19th cent.