transitional

Etymology

It is formed from English transition + -al.^[2][3][4][5] The noun transition is borrowed from Latin trānsitiō (“a going across or over”), from trānseō (“to go or cross over”).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relating to or involving transition or change; intermediate: 1663, in E. Waterhouse's Fortescutus Illustratus, the OED's first quotation in its revised entry.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to 1810,^[3] the Shorter Oxford to the early 19th century,^[4] and Klein says it was first used by Coleridge.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective became common in the 19th century,^[3][4] when it was applied to the history of art.^[2][4] In 1817 Thomas Rickman used it, often with a capital, for an architectural style of mixed or intermediate character,^[2] especially the late Romanesque in which Gothic features begin to appear.^[6][4] In 1945 collectors of Chinese porcelain took it for the wares of the late Ming and early Qing period.^[2] The adjective was used as a noun, for something intermediate or passing, from 1871.^[2] Etymonline notes that transitionary, in the same sense, is older, from the 1680s.^[3]

Timeline

• 1663 – of or relating to transition; intermediate.^[2]
• 1810 – Etymonline's first date.^[3]
• 1817 – in architecture, of an intermediate style.^[2]
• 1871 – noun, something intermediate or temporary.^[2]
• 1945 – of a style of Chinese porcelain of the late Ming and early Qing.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or marked by transition; passing from one state or stage to another; intermediate: a transitional phase between two systems.^[7][2][6]
2. Serving for a time during a change, as between one government and the next; temporary.^[6][2]
3. (architecture) Of the last stage of Romanesque style, when Gothic elements begin to appear.^[6][2][4]
4. Of the Chinese porcelain made in the late Ming and early Qing periods.^[2]

Noun

1. Something intermediate, or in the course of change.^[2]

Word family

• nontransitional

Related words

• transient
• transit
• transition
• transitive
• transitory

References

1. ^ 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 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 e f 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 Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster