Other forms: trackers
A tracker is somebody or something that follows a trail. A GPS tracker, a fitness tracker, an expert tracker.
The human kind reads prints, broken twigs and droppings, and the skill is old and still used in conservation and search work. The electronic kind reports position, and a fitness tracker follows steps, sleep and heart rate. A tracker mortgage follows a central bank rate. Note track; and that a web tracker follows people instead of animals.
1nountrackerSomebody or something that follows a trail.
“The expedition hired a local tracker to lead them to the herd of elephants.”
2noundeviceA device or programme that records something over time.
“My fitness tracker says I've walked ten thousand steps today.”
tracker is a follower of trails.
Middle Dutch
trec
Old Norse
traðk
Old French
trac — track of horses, trail, trace
Middle English
trak
English
track
English, today
tracker
From track + -er. track comes from Middle English trak, tracke, from Old French trac (“track of horses, trail, trace”), of uncertain origin. Likely from a gem source, either Old Norse traðk "a track; path; trodden spot"; > Icelandic traðk (“a track; path; tread”), Faroese traðk (“track; tracks”), Norwegian tråkke (“to trample”) or from Middle Dutch trec, trac, treck "line, row, series"; > Dutch trek (“a draft; feature; trait; groove; expedition”), German Low German Treck (“a draught; movement; passage; flow”). See tread, trek.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA