Powerful motor vehicles designed specifically for pulling or pushing agricultural machinery and heavy loads.
From Latin 'trahere' meaning 'to pull' or 'to draw,' with the suffix '-or' indicating an agent or instrument. The word was first applied to steam-powered agricultural machines in the late 19th century, then to internal combustion vehicles in the early 20th century.
The first tractors were actually steam-powered behemoths that required a crew of several people to operate and could weigh over 20 tons. Modern tractors have GPS guidance systems and can operate with centimeter-level precision, representing one of agriculture's greatest technological leaps.
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