[app. a. F. transgression (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. transgressiōn-em a going over; later, a violation, transgression, sin, n. of action from transgredī to TRANSGRESS.]
1. The action of transgressing or passing beyond the bounds of legality or right; a violation of law, duty, or command; disobedience, trespass, sin.
1436. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 1130. Transgressyoun ys for to say A goyyng fro the ryht[e] way, Or shortly, in sentement Brekyng off a comaundement.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), V. 213. Borne in as grete innocency and withowte synne as Adam was afore the transgression.
14[?]. Cust. Malton, in Surtees Misc. (1888), 60. Alle odyr transgrescyons þt towchys the lordes persons.
1494. Fabyan, Chron. (1811), 342. Culpable in certayne artycles, towchynge transgressyon agayne the kynge.
1552. Abp. Hamilton, Catech. (1884), 27. Dedely synnis quhilke ar transgressionis of Gods commands.
1595. Shaks., John, I. i. 256. Heauen lay not my transgression to my charge.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxvi. 148. Punishments ordained beforehand for their transgression.
1722. De Foe, Relig. Courtsh., I. ii. (1840), 67. The children shall not be punished for the father’s transgression.
1824. L. Murray, Eng. Gram., I. 491. The transgression of this rule makes what are called harsh or forced metaphors.
b. The action of passing over or beyond. (Only as the etymological sense of the word.)
1623. Cockeram, Transgression, a passing or going ouer.
1643. Burroughes, Exp. Hosea (1652), 238. Sin is called by the name of Transgression … that is going beyond their bounds, going over the hedge.
1857. Maurice, Ep. St. John, iii. 47. I call it transgression; that is, the passing over a boundary which was marked out for me.
1907. Illingworth, Doctr. Trinity, x. 190. Sin is always transgression, the overstepping of due bounds, the refusal to be limited.
2. Geol. The spread of the sea over the land along a subsiding shore-line, producing an overlap by deposition of new strata upon old.
1882. Geikie, in Nature, 13 July, 242/2. In a section ‘Upon Abrasion and Transgression,’ the author insists upon the paramount influence of the sea as an agent in planing down the surface of the land.
1903. Claypole, in Amer. Geol., Aug., 91. The depression in southern Ohio, Where the outcrop of the Corniferous limestone and the Corniferous-Hamilton is concealed by the transgression of the shale.
Hence Transgressional a., of or pertaining to transgression; of the nature of a transgression.
1690–1. Ld. Rochester, Lett., in Burnet, Own Times (1823), VI. 284. Forgive this transgressional rapture, and receive my thanks … for your kind letter.
