transmit

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English transmitten,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Latin trānsmittō (“to send across, transfer, pass on”),^[3][5][6][4] from trāns- (“across, beyond”) and mittō (“to let go, send”), the source of mission.^[5][3][6] Middle English also had a verb transmisen, from the past participle stem of the Old French verb of the same meaning; it is now obsolete.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To send or convey something to another person or place: Barnhart dates it probably before 1400 and Etymonline about 1400;^[3][5] the OED's first quotation is from the Alexander, dated before 1400–50.^[6] The MED records the verb for sending a letter.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, to pass on something immaterial to others or to later generations, is dated to 1629 by the OED and to the 1620s by Etymonline;^[6][5][7] Johnson (1755) illustrated it with Hale's remark that writing lets earlier ages transmit the memory of ancient things to posterity.^[8] From 1664 it was used in physics of light, heat or sound passing through a medium.^[6][7] From 1877 it was used of sending out electric signals,^[6] and the noun transmitter, first recorded in 1727 for a person who transmits, was used for a telegraph or telephone apparatus from 1844 and for a radio or television transmitter from 1934.^[3] In radio jargon transmit became a noun, as in on transmit (1968).^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – to send or convey to another person or place.^[3][5][6]
• 1629 – to pass on, hand down, as by inheritance.^[6]
• 1664 – of a medium, to let light, heat or sound pass through.^[6]
• 1672 – noun, an act or order of transmission.^[6]
• 1877 – to send out electric signals.^[6]
• 1968 – noun, in radio, transmission (on transmit).^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To send or pass something from one person, place or thing to another; to convey.^[9][10][6]
2. To pass on a disease or infection.^[10]
3. To hand down to later generations; to pass an inherited trait from parent to offspring.^[10][6]
4. To allow light, heat, sound or another form of energy to pass through; to conduct.^[10][6]
5. To send out signals by radio or along a wire; to broadcast: The station transmits only at night.^[10][6]

Noun

1. (rare) An act or order of transmission; also a button or switch that sets a radio to send.^[11][6]

Word family

• transmittable
• transmittal
• pretransmit
• retransmit
• transmitter

Related words

• transmissible
• transmission
• transmittance
• mission
• permit
• submit
• emit
• missile

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press