transcendo

Forms

trānscendō (present infinitive trānscendere, perfect active trānscendī, supine trānscēnsum); third conjugation^[1] It is also spelled transscendō.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin trāns- (“across”) + scandō (“to climb”), with the vowel weakened in the compound.^[3][2][1][4] De Vaan traces scandō to Proto-Italic *skand-e/o- (“to ascend”) and an aorist Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump up, ascend”).^[5] Cognate with Old Irish sceinnid (“jumps”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short's first example is Plautus' Aulularia, where a poor man fears passing over from the asses to the oxen.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to climb or step over something in one's way, as Caesar's hurdles thrown down to cross the ditches, and to cross a river, as Velleius' Cimbri and Teutones crossing the Rhine; intransitively Caesar has soldiers trying to cross into the enemy's ships.^[3][2] Lewis & Short note that it is frequent and classical in the literal senses.^[2] Figuratively it is to overstep rules, as Lucretius' greed and blind ambition driving men beyond the bounds of right, and to surpass or exceed.^[3] Livy uses it of passing over consuls in the annals, and the land surveyors of making a transition in an argument.^[3]

Church Latin glosses it to transcend.^[6] English transcend (mid-14th century) came through Old French and directly from Latin.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of passing over to a higher class.^[2][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of overstepping the bounds of right.^[3][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of crossing ditches.^[3][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of skipping names in the annals.^[3][7]
• mid-14th century – Borrowed into English as transcend.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To climb or step over; to cross a river.^[3][2][1]
2. Intransitively, to go over or across.^[3][2]
3. To overstep, transgress; to surpass, exceed, transcend.^[3][2][6][1]
4. To pass over, skip.^[3]
5. To pass on to another stage; to change ground in an argument.^[3]

Word family

• transcendentia
• trānscēnsus

Related words

• scandō
• ascendō
• English transcend

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de