prefix. The Latin preposition trans, ‘across, to or on the farther side of, beyond, over,’ also used in comb., (1) with verbs, and their derived sbs. and adjs., e.g., transīre to go across, transitio, transitor, transitus, transitīvus, transitōrius; transferre to bear across, transfer, translātus, translātio, translātor, translātīvus, translātīcius; (2) with adjs. derived from sbs. (more strictly with sb. + adjectival suffix), as transfluviālis beyond the river, transfluvial, transmarīnus beyond sea, transmarine, transmontānus beyond the mountains, tramontane, translīmitānus beyond the boundary or frontier; esp. with adjs. in -ānus, -īnus from names of mountains, rivers, or districts, as transalpīn-us, transaustrīn-us (Auster south wind), transdānubiān-us, transpadān-us (Padus Po), transrhēnān-us (Rhēnus Rhine), transiberīn-us, transtigrītān-us. Before initial s, the s of trans- was generally but not always dropped, as in transpicĕre to look through, tran-scendĕre to transcend, tran-scrībĕre to transcribe, tran-suĕre to stitch through. In a number of verbs and their derivatives, trans- was reduced before a consonant to trā-, e.g., trādĕre to hand over, tradūcĕre to lead across, trājicĕre or trāicĕre to throw across, trājectus a crossing, trānāre to swim across.
In med.L. the number of these compounds was increased, and verbs formed also on sbs., as transaccidentāre to transpose the accidents, transubstantiāre to transmute the substance, transnoctāre to pass the night, transviāre to change the path or course of. They are also numerous in the modern Romanic languages. Many of the English words came through French; in OF. the inherited form was in tres-, as trespasser to trespass; the later adapted form is in trans-.
In English, trans- occurs in compounds representing those already used in Latin, and in others formed analogously from L. elements; also in compounds the second element of which is an English or other non-Latin word. The chief uses are as follows:
1. With the sense ‘across, through, over, to or on the other side of, beyond, outside of, from one place, person, thing, or state to another’: in verbs and their derivative sbs. and adjs. representing L. compounds, or formed etymologically on Latin elements; e.g., transcolate, transcribe, transcript, transcription, transport, transportation.
2. in verbs, etc., formed on Eng. vbs., adjs., or sbs., as transboard, transearth, transfashion, tranship, trans-shape, transtime.
3. in adjs. and their derivatives, representing L. adjs., or formed analogically on L. words, as transmarine, transmural; also on English sbs. or adjs., as trans-border, -desert, -frontier, -polar. These may have the sense ‘across, crossing,’ or ‘beyond, on the other side of,’ or both senses, as trans-oceanic. Special groups are:
4. in adjs. with the sense ‘beyond, surpassing, transcending,’ as transhuman, -material, -rational.
5. in adjs., scientific terms (chiefly anatomical), with the sense ‘through, across’ (the thing denoted by the sb. implied), as transapical, -frontal, -ocular, -uterine.
6. in substantives with the sense ‘transverse,’ as trans-muscle, trans-stroke. (rare.)
All words belonging to these six groups are treated in their alphabetical places as main words. In the two following groups trans- combinations are formed at pleasure, and examples only are here given with illustrative quotations in chronological order.
7. in geographical adjs., formed on the names of rivers, seas, mountains, territories, etc., with the sense ‘situated or lying beyond or on the other side of,’ as trans-Adriatic, -Alleghanian, -Altaian, -Baikal, -ian, -Cantine (the river Cam), -Caspian, -Caucasian, -Danubian, -Egyptian, -Euphrat-es (-esian, -ic), -Gangetic (Ganges), -Grampian, -Indus, -Indine, Jordan, -ic, -Juran (Mt. Jura), -Mersey, -Mississippi, -an, -Mosan (R. Meuse), -Severn, -Tiberine (also -Teverine, It. trasteverino), -Trentane (R. Trent), -Ural, -Volga, -Zambesian, etc. (See also TRANSATLANTIC, TRANS-PACIFIC, TRANSKEI, TRANSLEITHAN.) Also from names of planets, Trans-Martian, -Neptunian, -Uranian, and in humorous nonce-use, as trans-bedpost.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., viii. 420. The Clees, like louing Twinnes,… that stand Trans-Seuerned, behold fair England tow’rds the rise.
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 144. Satrapaes of the Transeuphratesian Countreyes.
1655. Fuller, Hist. Camb. (1840), 146. Monks’ College … stood on the trans-Cantine side, an anchoret in itself, severed by the river from the rest of the University.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, II. 113. The transmosan territories of Liege.
1797. Camb. Univ. Calendar, 18. That there cannot be a majority of transtrentane, or men born north of the Trent in the seniority.
1802. Ranken, Hist. France, III. I. iii. 30. Burgundy Transjurane … now fell under the superiority of Germany.
1815. J. Adams, Wks. (1856), X. 168. Our trans-Alleghanian States, in patriotism,… are at least equal to any in the Union.
1817. Colebrooke, in Trans. Linn. Soc., XII. 352. Between the cis-gangetic and trans-gangetic regions.
1827. G. S. Faber, Sacr. Calend. Prophecy (1844), II. 81. The transdanubian and transeuphratic conquests of Trajan.
1836. F. Mahony, Rel. Father Prout, Barry (1859), 503. Of an old transtiberine family, he claimed with the trasteverini unconditionated pedigree.
1840. Milman, Hist. Chr., I. 177. On the remote border of his transjordanic territory.
1845. S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., II. 445. The generals now, under the eyes of the pope, demanded … as security for payment, the Transteverine city.
1854. Milman, Lat. Chr., II. ix. (1864), II. 424. Leo revenged himself by severing the Transadriatic provinces … from the Roman patriarchate.
1861. J. G. Sheppard, Fall Rome, i. 22. Pannonia was nearly equivalent to trans-Danubian Hungary.
1876. Blackie, Lang. & Lit. Scott. Highl., 40. The quick sensibilities of trans-Grampian philologers.
1878. Gladstone, Prim. Homer, i. § 12. 15. Homer … gives an account of the trans-Egyptian Pygmæans.
1888. Times, 9 Oct., 4/1. These outsiders … will also have to settle peacefully in the Russian Transcaspian.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 14 Feb., 2/1. Glimpses of the Jordan valley and the trans-Jordan hills.
1900. Mary Carus-Wilson, Irene Petrie, xiii. 305. A campaign in trans-Himalayan lands open to the Gospel and wholly without missionaries.
1903. Sir H. H. Johnston, in Times, 17 Feb. A Government Department … dealing with foreign (i.e., trans-Zambesian) labour.
1852. R. Grant, Hist. Physic. Astron., xii. 166. M. Valz, of Marseilles, writing to M. Arago in 1835,… made the following … remarks relative to the probable existence of a Trans-Uranian planet. Ibid., 185. On the 2nd September, 1846, he [Mr. Adams] transmitted … an account of his further researches on the Trans-Uranian planet.
1879. Nature, 27 March, 481/2. The Trans-Neptunian Planet … Observations made at Washington in 1850 of this supposed planet.
1885. Clerke, Pop. Hist. Astron., 98. He [Olbers] supposed that both Ceres and Pallas were fragments of a primitive trans-Martian planet.
1864. Miss Cornwallis in Sat. Rev., XVIII. 463. Pray tell me about the trans-bedpost regions; my whole concern at present is the cis-bedpost—a very narrow domain.
8. in geographical adjs., formed as in 7, with the sense ‘passing across, crossing,’ as in trans-African, -Algerian, -American, -Andean (-ian, -ine), -Arabian, -Asiatic, -Australian, -Balkan, -Manchurian, -Mersey, -Mongolian, -Niger, -Pyrenean, -Saharan, -Siberian, etc. Many of these occur also in sense 7.
1880. Nature, 4 March, 424/2. The future Transalgerian Railway Company.
1884. Notes on Bks. (Longman’s), 31 May, 247. The Transandine exploring and surveying expedition of 1871–2.
1886. L’pool Courier, 16 Jan. Assisting in opening the trans-Mersey Railway.
1896. Daily News, 30 Dec., 7/1. The trans-Siberian railway, one of the greatest engineering works of the century.
1898. Chambers’ Jrnl., I. 543/2. 8000 feet above sea-level, the highest point to which the Trans-Andean railway had been carried.
1901. Daily Chron., 13 Nov., 3/3. The reported adoption … of the trans-American route for the conveyance of the Australian mails. Ibid. (1903), 17 March, 6/6. The project of a Trans-Pyrenean railway is thoroughly practicable.
1907. Westm. Gaz., 26 Oct., 16/3. This trans-African voyage of Mr. Savage Landor.
1908. Edin. Rev., July, 146. The trans-Niger railway, destined to … open up to commerce a magnificent agricultural region.
Pronunciation. In the pronunciation of trans- in combination, great diversity prevails locally and individually in cultivated speech. This diversity affects both the vowel a and the consonant s.
