„The word connects the visible trace with the invisible thing, the absent thing,
the thing that is desired or feared, like a frail emergency bridge flung over an abyss.“
Exactitude, from Six Memos for the Next Millennium, Italo Calvino.

trace¹ /treis/ v. & n. –v.tr. observe, discover, or find vestiges or signs of by investigation; follow or mark the track or position of; follow back to its origins; mark out, delineate, sketch, or write; pursue one´s way along (a path). –n. a sign or mark or other indication of something having existed; a vestige. (ME f. OF trace (n.) tracier (v.) f. L tractus drawing).

trace¹ /treis/ v. & n. -v.tr. (small amount of) Spur, Hauch; (draw) Zeichnen; (follow) verfolgen; (track down) Aufspüren; (trace back to) Zurückverfolgen; (path) Weg/Pfad.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary

„It is the thing in itself, isolated from
all other things. Born out of the
necessity to see it, and the need to
see for seeing´s sake. The motionless
in emptiness, that is, at last, the
visible thing, the pure object…“

„Es ist die Sache für sich,
abgesondert von allem andern, aus
dem Bedürfnis sie zu sehen, aus dem
Bedürfnis zu sehen. Das Unbewegliche
im Leeren, das ist endlich das
Sichtbare, das reine Objekt…“

Die Welt und die Hose
Samuel Beckett, Suhrkamp Verlag