? Obs. Also 5 transs-. [ad. late L. tran(s)sumptiōn-em (Quintilian), n. of action f. tran(s)sūmĕre to TRANSUME. Cf. OF. transumption (15th c. in Godef.).]
1. Transcription, copying; a passage copied or taken from any author; a quotation.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, Prol. 264. Veyn[e] fables, whiche of entencioun They han contreved by false transumpcioun, To hyde trouthe falsely vnder cloude.
1451. Capgrave, Life St. Gilbert, 85. All þese transumpciones folowing rehersith our auctour to þis entent, þat men of religion schuld not haue fair condiciones owtward and euel inward,… and soo may men expounne all þe othir transumpciones.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1744), VII. ii. 28. It was not Paul’s design, to use these words … by way of citation out of David; but having by a kind of transumption and accommodation borrowed those former words of his.
2. The action of taking over from one to another; transference or translation to another part or place.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 608. The aiery bodie … is nourished by blood brought by the Veines, and that per Diadosin that is by Transumption.
1656. E. Reyner, Rules Govt. Tongue, 213. Elijah informed Elisha of such things as should fall out in Israel after this transumption.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., VI. 242. A Sinus … out of which, sharp Ichores coming by transumption to the neck of the bladder.
3. Rhet. Transfer of terms; metaphor. See also quot. 1553.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. xviii. 258. This colour of speche which in rethorick is clepid transsumpcioun.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 178. Transumption is, when by degrees wee goe to that, whiche is to bee shewed. As thus: Suche a one lieth in a darke doungeon, now in speakyng of darkenesse, we vnderstande closenesse, by closenesse, we gather blacknesse, and by blacknesse, we iudge deepenesse.
1624. Bargrave, Serm., 7. Such parabolicall transumptions are to be expounded to the sense, not to the letter.
1677. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, II. IV. 280. The cause of this Transumtion is because we have not a word which properly signifies the stable mansion of Eternitie: wherefore we are forced to transfer, by way of similitude, our temporal words … to Eternitie.
[1880. Lewis & Short, Lat. Dict., Transumptio, a taking or assuming of one thing for another, transumption, metalepsis, a transl. of μετάληψις, Quint. 8, 6, 37.]
4. Logic. In the Aristotelian logic (tr. Gr. μετάληψις), Conversion of a hypothetical proposition into a categorical one.
1628. T. Spencer, Logick, 293. Aristotle doth call all compound Syllogismes by the name of Hypotheticall, because they inferre the conclusion vpon the supposition of some part thereof: & doth divide them into such as conclude according vnto transumption: and qualitie (that is as Pacius vnderstands it), when the minor is taken out of the maior; as … If a man, then a living creature. But a man, therefore a living creature.
[1730–6. Bailey (folio), Transumptio (with Schoolmen), a syllogism by concession or agreement, used where a question proposed is transferred to another with this condition, that the proof of this latter shall be admitted for a proof of the former.]
