[ad. L. transactiōn-em, n. of action f. transigĕre: see prec. Cf. F. transaction (13th c. in Godef., Compl.).]
1. Roman and Civil Law. The adjustment of a dispute between parties by mutual concession; compromise; hence gen. an arrangement, an agreement, a covenant. Now Hist. exc. as in 3 c.
c. 1460. Oseney Reg., 84. A stryfe … i-stered bytwene thabbot of Eynesham and N. clerke of Karsynton and thabbot of Oseney…. In this maner in owr presence, be transaction, to be decidid.
1611. Cotgr., Transaction, a transaction, accord, agreement, attonement.
1615. in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm., 1899), I. 167. [The Spice Trade] is appropriated to the Hollanders as well by right of Conquest as by Transaction.
1631. Massinger, Emperor East, III. iv. In this transaction, Drawn in express and formal terms, I have Given and consigned into your hands … my dear Eudocia!
1786. A. Gib, Sacr. Contempl., i. 31. A covenant is a transaction between two parties.
2. The action of transacting or fact of being transacted; the carrying on or completion of an action or course of action; † the accomplishment of a result (obs.).
1655. Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 286. His carriadge in the transaction of the peace betweene the people of these countryes and Cromwell.
1658. Phillips, Transaction, a finishing, or dispatching any businesse.
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, III. v. After the transaction of this affair.
1844. L. Woods, Ch. Govt., ii. 44. Any direction of Christ or … of his apostles respecting the transaction of business in the church.
3. That which is or has been transacted; an affair in course of settlement or already settled; a piece of business; in pl. doings, proceedings, dealings. Also fig.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 18. Discoursing of the Court of France, and the transactions there.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Serm. 2 Pet. i. 10, Wks. 1837, V. 578. In our transactions with men, when we have an honest man’s word for a bargain, we think it safe.
1726. Shelvocke, Voy. round World, Contents 1. Our most remarkable transactions there.
1755. Doddridge, Hymn, ‘O happy day, that fixed my choice,’ iii. ’Tis done; the great transaction’s done; I am my Lord’s, and He is mine.
1834. L. Ritchie, Wand. by Seine, 192. Every marriage, every baptism, every fête, is a public transaction.
1863. Mary Howitt, F. Bremer’s Greece, I. i. 19. Every remarkable transaction obtained its stone-tablet on the Acropolis.
† b. A physical operation, action, or process.
1662. South, Serm. (1697), I. 49. There is not the least transaction of sense and motion in the whole man.
1794. J. Hutton, Philos. Light, 261. Inertia is the law of action and passion by which motion is translated from one body to another … and, in this transaction, the rule observed is the actual weight of the bodies.
c. Theol. In reference to the Atonement, ‘transaction’ has been used in senses ranging from 1 to 3. (In sense 1 chiefly in deprecation.)
1861. Abp. Thomson, Aids to Faith, viii. 351. There is the danger lest the Atonement degenerate into a transaction between a righteous Father on the one side, and a loving Saviour on the other, because in the human transaction from which the analogy is drawn two distinct parties are concerned.
1876. Mozley, Serm., viii. (1879), 169. Now I have nothing to do here with the mystery of this transaction; the question is the morality of it—how the act of one person can alter God’s regards toward another.
1901. R. C. Moberly, Atonement & Personality, vii. 138. They seem to make atonement a transaction, historical, final, consummated long ago:—a transaction (I do not ask at this moment between whom; but at all events) far anterior to, and wholly outside of, the reality of ourselves.
1901. Sanday, Life Christ in rec. Res., V. ix. (1907), 249. So much at least seems to follow…, that the Scriptures do recognize a mysterious something which, in our imperfect human language, may be described as a ‘transaction.’
† 4. The action of passing or making over a thing from one person, thing, or state to another; transference. Obs.
a. 1608. Sir F. Vere, Comm., 69. Her Majesty being in hand with the States to make a transaction from the old treaty to the new.
1613–8. Daniel, Hist. Eng. (1621), 16. Putting on each others apparel and armes … as if they made transaction of their persons each to other.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. II. 20. The transaction of these Provinces which the King of Spaine made as a dowry to the Archduke Albertus.
1691. Sir T. P. Blount, Ess., v. 127. Did not Commerce … by a continual Motion and Transaction render it [the world] wholesome, and profitable.
† 5. The action of dealing with or handling a subject; treatment. Cf. TRANSACT v. 3. Obs. rare.
1646. Jer. Taylor, Apol. Liturgy, Pref. § 26. Those … Epistles and Gospels before the Communion … are Scriptures of the choicest, and most profitable transaction.
6. pl. The record of its proceedings published by a learned society. Rarely in sing. Cf. PROCEEDING vbl. sb. 2 c.
1665. (title) Philosophical Transactions: Giving some Accompt of the present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours of the Ingenious in many considerable Parts of the World. Ibid., I. 75. In the first papers of these Transactions.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 14. They all … Agreed to draw up th’ Instrument, And … To print it in the next Transaction.
1805. Phil. Trans., XCV. p. iii. To reconsider the papers read before them, and select such as they should judge most proper for publication in the future Transactions.
1877. A. B. Edwards, Up Nile, Pref. 8. The pages of scientific journals and the transactions of learned societies.
