means A powerful motor vehicle built to pull or push heavy loads, especially the farm machinery and ploughs of agricultural work.

from From Latin 'trahere,' to pull or drag — the same root that gives us 'traction,' 'tractable,' and 'attract.' The word 'tractor' was assembled in the late 19th century to name a machine whose whole purpose was pulling, and it elbowed out an earlier rival, 'traction engine.' So buried in the name is the steam-and-steel promise of a thing that drags the world along behind it.