Track(ed) record

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

For much of my life I assumed that "track record" meant 'verifiable record; record that people had kept track of'. I assume I am not alone in this folk etymology. Track-and-field sports were not big in my boyhood, and horseracing was barely on the radar.

As I recall, though, the term was often used to describe people who were RUNNING for office or in the RUNNING for promotion to an appointment of some kind, so the racing etymology was probably vaguely in my mind as well.
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