The word trek has been in the English language only since around 1849–and it was a direct borrow from the Dutch treck. But I found it interesting that treck didn’t actually mean “a long journey” when the Dutch started using it.
Nope. It meant “to drag or pull.” Why?
Well, when the Dutch were colonizing South Africa, their wagons often had to be physically pulled out of hazards and dragged along. They began calling the journey a treck–literally “a drag.” LOL. So when the English speakers borrowed it, it was to describe any long, arduous journey.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.