transgress

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English transgressen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French transgresser^[4][2][5] and directly borrowed from Latin trānsgressus,^[2][6] the past participle of trānsgredior (“to step across, go beyond”),^[4][7][6] from trāns (“across”) and gradior (“to step, walk, go”),^[4][7][8] from Proto-Indo-European *ghredh- (“to walk, go”).^[4][8] The French verb is recorded from the 14th century.^[5][4] Barnhart thinks the English verb is probably a back-formation from the earlier transgression, modelled on the Latin participle,^[3] and Weekley compares trespass.^[9] The rare noun comes from a noun of the same spelling in Latin, "a passing over",^[5] perhaps immediately through Old French transgres.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To sin: about 1475, in the text the MED cites as St Anne, "that were oppressyd, Lowsyng theyr bondes that had transgressyd".^[2][3][4] The OED, whose entry is not fully revised, has its first records from 1526, in Bonde's Pylgrimage of Perfection and in Tyndale's Bible.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline sees in the word the notion of overpassing a prescribed rule or law,^[4] and the noun transgression, recorded about 1415, already meant a violation of law or command.^[3][2] The verb followed that religious and legal use first, for breaking a law or command and for sinning,^[2][5] and the wider sense of going beyond any limit came in the early 17th century.^[5][4][6] Johnson (1755) lists "to pass over; to pass beyond" first and "to violate; to break" second, with a separate intransitive sense, "to offend by violating a law".^[10] In the 17th century it could also be used for offending against a person (before 1625, in Fletcher) and for trespassing or digressing (1662),^[5] uses now obsolete.^[5][6] A geological sense, of the sea spreading over the land, is recorded from 1909.^[5][4]

Timeline

• c. 1475 – to sin.^[2][3][4]
• 1526 – transitive, to break a law or command.^[5]
• 1578 – noun, a transgression.^[5] The Shorter Oxford dates the noun from late Middle English to the mid 19th century.^[6]
• 1620 – to go beyond any limit.^[5] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1610s.^[4]
• before 1625 – to offend against a person (obsolete).^[5]
• 1662 – intransitive, to trespass or digress (obsolete).^[5]
• 1909 – in geology, of the sea, to spread over the land.^[5][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To violate or break a law, rule or command: Those who transgress the club's rules will lose their membership.^[11][8][12]
2. To go beyond or overstep a limit or boundary: His jokes transgressed the bounds of good taste.^[11][8][12]
3. Intransitive: to commit an offence; to sin: They confessed that they had transgressed against their neighbours.^[8][5][6]
4. (geology) Of the sea, to spread over the land.^[8][11][5]
5. (obsolete) Intransitive: to trespass; to wander from the subject, to digress.^[5][6]

Noun

1. (obsolete, rare) A transgression.^[6][5]

Word family

• transgressible
• transgressive
• transgressively
• transgressor
• untransgressed

Related words

• transgression
• grade
• gradual
• digress
• progress
• congress
• aggression
• ingredient
• trespass

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins