Etymologically
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transport

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: noun: UK /ˈtræn.spɔːt/, US /ˈtræn.spɔːrt/; verb: UK /trænˈspɔːt/, US /trænˈspɔːrt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English transporten,[2][3] borrowed from Middle French transporter (“to carry across; to overwhelm emotionally”) and directly from Latin trānsportāre (“to carry over, take across”),[2][3][4] from trāns (“across”) and portāre (“to carry”),[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to lead, pass over”).[2] The noun is from the verb.[2][3] It is related to port, import, export and portable.[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Figuratively, about 1374 in the OED;[6] “to convey from one place to another”, late 14th century in Etymonline,[2] about 1380 in Chaucer's Boethius according to Barnhart.[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to carry away with strong feeling” is recorded about 1500,[2] 1509 in Barnhart,[3] and the banishment of a criminal to a penal colony from the 1660s.[2][6] The noun first meant a transfer of property (1456)[3][6] and “mental exaltation” in the mid-15th century,[2] later rapture (1658).[6] “The act of carrying” is from the 1610s,[2][6] and a means of conveyance from 1694,[3][6] first a ship carrying troops, supplies or convicts.[2][5] A transported convict was a transport from 1767.[6] In Scots church use, to transport a minister was to move him to another charge.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 1374 – figuratively, to carry away.[6]
  • c. 1380 – to convey.[3]
  • 1456 – noun, a transfer of property.[3][6]
  • 1509 – to carry away with emotion.[3]
  • 1610s – the act of carrying.[2]
  • 1660s – to send to a penal colony.[2]
  • 1694 – a means of conveyance.[3][6]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To carry from one place to another; to convey.
  2. To move to strong emotion; to enrapture.
  3. To send abroad to a penal colony; to deport.

Noun

  1. The act of transporting; conveyance.
  2. A system or means of carrying people or goods: public transport.
  3. A ship, aircraft or vehicle used to carry troops, passengers or freight.
  4. Rapture: transports of joy.

Word family

  • transportability
  • transportable
  • transporter
  • transportive
  • countertransport
  • pretransport
  • active transport
  • tape transport

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 i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)