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transition

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /trænˈzɪʃ.ən/, /trɑːnˈzɪʃ.ən/, /trænˈsɪʃ.ən/, US /trænˈzɪʃ.ən/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English transicion, from Latin trānsitiō (“a going across”) (perhaps through French),[2][3][4] a noun of action from the past participle stem of trānsīre “to go across”.[2][3] It is related to transient, transit and transitive.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In grammar, the relation between a verb and its object: the mid-15th century.[2]

Semantic evolution

The general sense, a passage from one condition to another, is from 1551 in the OED and MWU, the 1550s in Etymonline.[5][3][2] A passage in speech or writing from one subject to another is from 1592,[5][2] and a modulation in music from 1667.[5][2] In architecture, a style between an earlier and a later one is from 1835,[5] and in physics a change of state of an atom or electron from 1913.[5] The verb, to make or undergo a transition, is from 1975 in the OED, 1946 in MWU, and is chiefly North American.[5][3][6] Collins records the sense “the process of changing gender”.[7]

Timeline

  • mid-15th century – in grammar.[2]
  • 1551 – a change of condition.[5][3]
  • 1592 – a change of subject.[5]
  • 1667 – in music.[5]
  • 1913 – in physics.[5]
  • 1946 – verb.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The process of changing from one state or form to another.
  2. The period during which such a change happens.
  3. A word, phrase or passage linking two parts of a speech or text.
  4. (music) A brief modulation from one key to another.
  5. The process by which a person changes gender.

Verb

  1. (chiefly North American) To undergo or cause to undergo a transition.

Word family

  • transitional
  • transitionally
  • transit
  • transition temperature
  • transition element
  • transition metal
  • transient
  • transitive

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins