transcendental

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin trānscendentālis,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded about 1365 in Wyclif,^[2] formed from Latin trānscendēns (“surmounting, rising above”) and -ālis,^[2][4][5] the present participle of trānscendō (“to climb over, surmount”),^[3] from trāns (“across, beyond”) and scandō (“to climb”).^[3] It is thus a longer form of transcendent.^[2][7] The OED compares French transcendental, of the 18th century, and an obsolete 16th-century French form ending in -el.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1624,^[4] and the Shorter Oxford records an early 17th-century sense, belonging to the divine as opposed to the natural or moral world, that died out in the same century.^[7] The OED's first example is from 1668, in Bishop J. Wilkins's Essay Towards a Real Character, in the Aristotelian sense "extending beyond the bounds of any single category".^[2] Etymonline gives the 1660s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word began in Scholastic philosophy, for notions such as being, thing, one and truth that are higher than any of Aristotle's categories.^[2][4][3] From 1701 it was also a general word for "surpassing, exalted", like transcendent,^[2] and Johnson (1755) gave both "general; pervading many particulars" and "supereminent".^[8] In mathematics, from 1706, it described quantities and functions that cannot be produced by a finite number of ordinary algebraic operations.^[2][7] Its main modern philosophical sense comes from Kant, in English from 1798: not derived from experience but concerned with the conditions that experience presupposes.^[2][4][9] From this came looser uses in the 19th century: supernatural or superhuman (1826), abstract or obscure (1835), and the name of the New England movement led by Emerson (1844, in Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit).^[2][7] Transcendental meditation, the technique popularised by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is recorded from 1966.^[2][3]

Timeline

• early 17th century – belonging to the divine as opposed to the natural world (soon obsolete).^[7]
• 1668 – in Aristotelian philosophy, beyond the bounds of any single category; also as a noun, a transcendental conception.^[2]
• 1701 – surpassing, excelling, exalted.^[2]
• 1706 – in mathematics, not expressible by finite algebraic operations.^[2]
• 1798 – in Kant's philosophy, concerned with the a priori conditions of experience.^[2]
• 1826 – superhuman, supernatural.^[2]
• 1834 – beyond ordinary experience, extraordinary.^[2]
• 1835 – abstract, metaphysical.^[2]
• 1844 – of the New England movement around Emerson.^[2]
• 1966 – transcendental meditation.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. In Kantian philosophy, concerned with the a priori conditions of experience rather than with experience itself.^[9][4][2]
2. Going beyond ordinary experience; supernatural, mystical or spiritual.^[9][2][7]
3. Transcendent; surpassing or superior.^[9][4][2]
4. Abstract and metaphysical; also vague or obscure.^[2][7]
5. In Scholastic philosophy, extending beyond the bounds of any single category.^[4][2][7]
6. Of or relating to the New England movement of transcendentalism led by Emerson.^[2][7]
7. In mathematics, of a number or function: not algebraic, not expressible by a finite number of ordinary algebraic operations: Pi is a transcendental number..^[2][7]

Noun

1. A transcendental idea, term or quantity; in Scholastic philosophy, one of the broadest notions of being, such as unity or truth.^[4][2]

Word family

• transcendentally
• transcendentality
• untranscendental
• transcendentalize
• transcendentalism
• transcendental meditation

Related words

• transcend
• transcendence
• transcendency
• transcendent

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins