protract
/prəˈtrakt
/verb [with object]
Prolong: he had certainly taken his time, even protracting the process...
- To deprive a successful litigant of interest on his or her legal costs is to encourage the losing side to delay and protract the assessment process.
- The ‘winner-take-all electoral vote’ practice can avoid prolonged county by county vote count, which will inevitably protract the delivery of a new president.
- We've been in such a hurry for all these years for one main reason - the more the negotiations are protracted, the more difficult they become, which can be easily noticed.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from Latin protract- 'prolonged', from the verb protrahere, from pro- 'out' + trahere 'to draw'.
abstract from Middle English:
The Latin source of abstract, meant literally ‘drawn away’ and is from abstrahere, from the elements ab- ‘from’ and trahere ‘draw off’. The use in art dates from the mid 19th century. Trahere is found in many English words including: attract (Late Middle English) with ad ‘to’; portrait (mid 16th century), something drawn; protract (mid 16th century) with pro ‘out’; retract (Late Middle English) and retreat (Late Middle English) both drawing back; and words listed at train.