transitive

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin trānsitīvus (“passing over; of a verb, taking a direct object”),^[2][3][4][5] from Latin trānsitus, the past participle of trānseō (“to cross over”),^[3][6][5] with the suffix -īvus.^[2][6] That verb is formed from trāns (“across”) and eō (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *ei- (“to go”).^[3] Priscian, in the 5th or 6th century, used the Latin adjective for verbs whose sense crosses over from one person to another.^[2][3] The OED takes this grammatical use as modelled on Ancient Greek μεταβατικός (metabatikós), while the American Heritage Dictionary names διαβιβαστικός (diabibastikós) as the model.^[2][4] Compare French transitif, recorded from the early 14th century for "transient" and the late 14th for verbs; the Shorter Oxford thinks the "transient" sense came to English through Old French transitif.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a verb, taking a direct object: about 1525, in Linacre's Rudimenta Grammatices, which also has the noun.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1590,^[6] Etymonline to the 1570s,^[3] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1550–60.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The grammatical sense came first.^[2] The Latin's second meaning, "transient, changeable", gave English "passing from one state to another" in 1575; the Shorter Oxford marks this as obsolete by the early 20th century, though the OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged still record it.^[2][7][6] In philosophy and theology, from 1590, the word described an act or cause with an effect outside the agent, as opposed to an immanent one.^[2][7] From 1660 it could mean involving transition in a broader way, and an intermediate stage or position in particular.^[2] Johnson (1755) put "having the power of passing" first, quoting Bacon on cold as "active and transitive into bodies adjacent", and the grammatical sense second.^[9] Geologists of the Wernerian school used it from 1811 to 1854 for rocks thought to lie between primitive and later ones, after German transitiv.^[2] De Morgan's use for a logical relation (1856) gave the term of mathematics and logic; from 1861 it was also applied to groups of permutations.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1525 – of a verb, taking a direct object; as a noun, a transitive verb.^[2]
• 1575 – passing from one state to another, changeable, transient.^[2]
• 1590 – in philosophy and theology, producing an effect outside the agent.^[2]
• 1660 – characterized by transition; intermediate.^[2]
• 1810 – of a word, transferred or extended in its use (rare).^[2]
• 1811 – in geology, of rocks thought to be intermediate (obsolete by 1854).^[2]
• 1856 – in mathematics and logic, of a relation that carries over from a first item through a second to a third.^[2]
• 1861 – in group theory, of a group of permutations.^[2]
• 1959 – of an action on a group, having a single orbit.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (grammar) Of a verb or construction, taking a direct object: In “the dog chased the ball”, the verb is transitive.^[10][6][2]
2. (grammar) Of an adjective or noun, needing a following or implied noun phrase.^[10]
3. (logic, mathematics) Of a relation, holding between a first and a third item whenever it holds between the first and a second and between the second and the third.^[10][2][7]
4. (mathematics) Of a group of permutations, or an action on a group, having the property of moving any element of a set to any other.^[2]
5. (philosophy) Of an act or cause, having an effect outside the agent.^[2][7]
6. Marked by transition; intermediate.^[2][7]
7. Changeable or transient.^[7][2][6]

Noun

1. A transitive verb or construction.^[10][6][2]

Word family

• transitively
• transitiveness
• transitivity
• ditransitive
• transitive verb

Related words

• intransitive
• transit
• transient
• transition
• 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 q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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 f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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 c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins