transatlantic

Etymology

It is formed from English trans- + Atlantic,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} with trans- meaning across or beyond.^[3][8] Compare French transatlantique.^[2][3] Klein compares cisatlantic.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Passing or extending across the Atlantic Ocean: 1779, in J. Wilkes's correspondence.^[2][6] Etymonline gives the same year for the sense "on the other side of the Atlantic from the speaker".^[3]

Semantic evolution

The OED records the sense "situated beyond the Atlantic" from 1782, in Jefferson, and notes that in European use it chiefly meant American.^[2] The Shorter Oxford adds that from an American point of view it means British or European.^[4] As a noun it has meant a person or thing from across the Atlantic, especially an American, since 1826, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine,^[2] and Merriam-Webster also has it for a ship that crosses the Atlantic.^[6] Etymonline records the spelling trans-atlantic.^[3]

Timeline

• 1779 – crossing or extending across the Atlantic.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the sense "on the other side of the Atlantic" to the same year.^[3]
• 1782 – situated beyond the Atlantic; from a European point of view, American.^[2]
• 1826 – noun, a person or thing from across the Atlantic, especially an American.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Crossing or spanning the Atlantic Ocean: a transatlantic flight.^[9][6][2]
2. On or from the other side of the Atlantic; to a European, American, and to an American, British or European.^[9][6][4]

Noun

1. A person who lives on the other side of the Atlantic.^[6][2][4]
2. A ship that crosses the Atlantic.^[6]

Word family

• transatlantically

Related words

• Atlantic
• cisatlantic
• Atlas

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins