- 1循軌／磁軌追蹤（錄影機上的 TRACKING 鈕）
On an old video recorder (a ), the tape rubs past a small reading head, and the picture only comes out clean if the head follows the recorded line on the tape exactly. Tracking is the part of the machine that keeps that line-up right. When it slips, you don't lose the picture — you get bands of grey noise across the screen, or the picture jumps and tears. Older machines had a tracking or a TRACKING button you turned or pressed until the noise went away; that was one of the small skills of the 1980s and 90s. This is a technical word, and it belongs to a dead machine, so today you mostly meet it in that setting: someone talking about old tapes, or a film or game copying that look on purpose. Note that this is only one of several jobs the word 'tracking' does — the same spelling is much more common now for following someone or something (tracking a parcel, tracking your spending), and in schools for putting students into ability groups. Those are different uses; this one is the video-machine one.
這裡的 tracking 指老式錄影機上的循軌，也就是讓讀寫頭對準錄影帶上那條軌跡的機制。帶子跑偏時，畫面不是整個消失，而是出現灰色雜訊條紋，或跳動撕裂；老機器上有 TRACKING 旋鈕或按鈕，轉一轉、按一按就能把雜訊調掉。這是技術詞，主要出現在講舊錄影帶的場合。現在更常見的 tracking 是一路跟著某物走，像追蹤包裹、追蹤花費，那是另一個意思。
From the word’s history
From track: Middle English trak, from Old French trac 'track, trail', of uncertain origin, likely Germanic (Old Norse traðk or Middle Dutch trec).
源自古法文 trac「足跡」，來源不明，可能來自日耳曼語。
組成track (the recorded line the reading head must follow) + -ing (the ongoing action of following it)
原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
trackingnoun/ˈtɹækɪŋ/
- 1
The act or process by which something is tracked.
- In volume, the erudite studies of his language, the trackings of his numerous references to persons, places, and things around him, and the reconstruction of the details of his little-known life have occupied the most attention […]
- 2
mediapublishingtypographyA consistent adjustment of space between individual letters; letterspacing.
- 3
educationThe division of pupils into separately taught groups by perceived ability level.
- 4
businesselectrical-engineeringelectricityThe synchronization of two or more signals.
- 5
businesselectrical-engineeringelectricityThe formation of conductive paths on the surface of an insulating material due to electrical discharges.
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。