transgression

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English transgressioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French transgression^[4][3][2][5] and directly borrowed from Late Latin trānsgressiō (“a transgression of the law”).^[3][2][6] The Anglo-Norman transgression is recorded from 1136–65, and its senses include the sin of Adam and Eve.^[7] The Latin noun first meant "a going over, a going across",^[3][4][6] and is a noun of action from trānsgredior (“to step across, go beyond”),^[3][4][5] from trāns- (“across, beyond”) and gradior (“to walk, go”),^[3][8] from Proto-Indo-European *ghredh- (“to walk, go”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Disobedience to God's law, a sin: before 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible's Joshua, "What is þis transgressioun?"^[2] Etymonline likewise has the late 14th century.^[3] The OED's first record is later, from 1426, in Lydgate.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense came first, and the Middle English word could refer to Adam's sin and the Fall.^[2][3] By the early 15th century it was also used of disobedience to a human law or rule,^[3][4] and in legal use of a violation of another person's property or liberty, as in the Anglo-Norman writ of trespass.^[2][7] Middle English also applied it to a planet's irregular motion.^[2] The Latin sense of passing over or beyond reached English dictionaries only in 1623, with Cockeram, as the word's etymological meaning.^[4] Johnson (1755) defines the word as the violation of a law or the breach of a command, quoting Milton.^[9] In 1882 Geikie used it for the sea's spread over the land.^[4][3]

Timeline

• before 1382 – disobedience to God's law, sin.^[2]
• 1426 – a violation of law, duty or command, in Lydgate.^[4] Etymonline dates the sense for a human law to the early 15th century.^[3]
• 1623 – the action of passing over or beyond.^[4]
• 1882 – in geology, the spread of the sea over the land.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A violation of a law, command or duty; a sin or offence: He confessed his youthful transgressions to the priest.^[10][6][4]
2. The act of transgressing.^[10][6]
3. (geology) The spread of the sea over land areas, shown by marine deposits lying on older rocks.^[6][4]

Word family

• nontransgression
• transgressional

Related words

• transgress
• grade
• digress
• progress
• regress

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins