trance

Forms

trance m (plural trances)^[1]

Etymology

Corominas dates the noun, in the sense “critical moment, above all that of death”, to about 1400 and makes it from Spanish tranzar (“to destroy; to cut, break off”), an old verb of the 13th–16th centuries.^[2] DICCA-XV agrees.^[3] The verb itself is of uncertain origin: Corominas links it with Old French trenchier (modern French trancher) and Catalan trencar “to cut”, themselves obscure, and suggests Proto-Celtic *trenkō (“I cut, I end”), comparing Welsh trengu (“to die”) and tranc (“end, death”); a variant *trankio would explain the vowel of the Spanish verb.^[2][3] The DLE has the verb of uncertain origin.^[4]

The DLE, Moliner and García de Diego take the noun instead from French transe, a derivative of transir, which is from Latin transeō (“to go across, pass over”).^[5][6][7] In French the noun meant the death agony from about 1150, and the verb had meant “to die”, a sense Christian writers had given the Latin verb.^[8] Covarrubias in 1611 already derived the legal sense from the Latin verb, as the passing of goods from seller to buyer, and the Academy's dictionary of 1884 gave the noun transitus (“a passage”) as the etymon.^[9][10] Gómez de Silva only says the word probably belongs with trinchar “to carve”.^[11]

The sense “hypnotic or mediumistic state” is of later origin: Wiktionary takes it from English trance or from the French noun, and the DHLF says the French word got this sense from English in the 19th century, the English word itself going back to the Old French noun.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The early hits of the CDH, in the 13th-century fueros of Úbeda, Cuenca and Baeza, are forms of the verb trançar.^[12] The noun appears in the 15th-century cancioneros, in the poems of Lope de Estúñiga (c. 1407–1463, in a copy of 1460–1463), where an honour is won por mill trances “through a thousand combats”.^[12] In his letters of 1434–1435 to the knight Johan Fabra, trance is a formal combat at arms, which ends only with the death of one side.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word belonged to chivalry: Nebrija about 1495 gives trance de armas as Latin singulare certamen, a single combat.^[3][12] From the critical moment of a combat it came to mean any dangerous or decisive moment, and the last moment of life: Autoridades in 1739 gives both, the second por extensión.^[13][2] Cervantes uses it often for a difficult moment and for the hour of death.^[14]

A legal sense, the judicial sale of a debtor's goods to pay the creditor (hacer trance), is in Covarrubias in 1611 and in the Academy's dictionaries to 1917.^[9][13][15] The adverbial phrase a todo trance “resolutely, whatever the risk” is in the Academy's dictionaries from 1843.^[16][5] The modern dictionaries add the trance of a medium and the mystical union of the soul with God, which the Academy did not yet give in 1899.^[5][17] In El Salvador trance is a deal on the edge of the law.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – first record of the noun according to Corominas.^[2]
• 1434 – Lope de Estúñiga uses trance for a formal combat at arms.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records trance de armas “single combat”.^[3]
• 1527 – first record from the Americas, in Honduras.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the legal trance y remate of goods and the trance riguroso.^[9]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines the dangerous moment and the last moment of life.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin transitus.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A critical and decisive moment that someone goes through: Pasó un trance muy duro tras el accidente.^[5][6]
2. The last moment of life, close to death, especially in último trance.^[5][20]
3. A trance: the state in which a médium shows paranormal phenomena, or a state like that of hypnosis.^[5][6]
4. A state in which the soul feels itself in mystical union with God; ecstasy (éxtasis).^[5]
5. (El Salvador) A deal bordering on the illegal.^[18]

Related words

• tranzar
• trinchar
• French transe

Usage notes

Set phrases are a todo trance “at all costs, whatever the risk” and trance de armas “combat, duel”.^[5] The legal hacer trance “to sell a debtor's goods by court order” is obsolete.^[17][15]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. trance
3. ^ a b c d Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. trance
4. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. tranzar
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. trance
6. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. trance
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6811
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. transir
9. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1344
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1041
11. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
12. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. trance
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 323
14. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 1107
15. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1602
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 711
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 975
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. trance
19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. trance
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. trance