Transient

a. (sb.) Also 7 erron. transeant, -scient; 7–9 (chiefly in sense 2) transeunt. [f. L. transiens (in oblique cases transeunt-, whence the form transeunt), pr. pple. of L. transīre, f. trans across + īre to go.]

  1.  Passing by or away with time; not durable or permanent; temporary, transitory; esp. passing away quickly or soon, brief, momentary, fleeting.

1607.  Schol. Disc. agst. Antichr., I. i. 17. Whose parts are transeunt and aereall, and presently vanishing.

1612.  Sturtevant, Metallica, v. 56. Instruments and means are said to be Transient, when in respect of their vse, they serue but once.

1659.  Pearson, Creed (1839), 380. It containeth two distinct parts; one transient, the other permanent.

1662.  J. Davies, trans. Mandelslo’s Trav., 261. They are transient showers soon over.

1713.  Berkeley, Guardian, No. 70, ¶ 8. The transient enjoyments of this life.

1813.  Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 282. This manure is transient in its effects, and does not last for more than a single crop.

1873.  Hamerton, Intell. Life, IV. v. (1875), 166. The few and transient hours that we can call our own.

  2.  Passing out or operating beyond itself; transitive; opposed to immanent. (Often spelt transeunt for distinction from sense 1.)

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage, I. i. 4. The workes of God, which are either inward and immanent, or outward and transient.

1625.  Gill, Sacr. Philos., I. 98. You may observe a difference of actions, of which some are immanent, or indwelling in the doer…: some againe are transeunt, or passing from the doer upon that which is done.

a. 1676.  Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., 35. Those two great transeunt or emanant acts or works, the works of Creation and Providence.

1836–7.  Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph. (1870), II. xxv. 118. An act of the mind going out of itself, in other words, a transeunt act.

1847.  De Quincey, Milton v. Southey & Landor, Wks. XII. 177. In metaphysical language, the moral of an epos or a drama should be immanent, not transient.

1890.  Athenæum, 8 Nov., 631/1. Volitionally reactive redintegration with its two stages, immanent and transeunt action.

  3.  Passing or flowing through; passing from one thing or person to another. Now rare.

1619.  Denison, Heav. Banq., 341. If the worship at our receiuing did determine in the Sacrament, or were transient by it to God.

1644.  [H. Parker], Jus Pop., 57. They lurke between scripture and reason, and remain in a kind of transcient posture.

1671.  Grew, Anat. Plants, i. (1682), 7. A Filtre to the transient Sap.

a. 1703.  Burkitt, On N. T., 1 Thess. ii. (1818), 16. Hereditary, and … transient from one generation to another.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, v. 37. Away we stole, and transient in a trice From what was left of faded woman-slough To sheathing splendours … issued in the sun.

  4.  Passing through a place without staying in it, or staying only for a short time; in quot. 1731 of birds, migratory; spec. (U.S. colloq.) applied to a guest at a hotel, etc. (often ellipt. as sb.: see B. 2).

1685.  Baxter, Paraphr. N.T., Mark (1701), Introd. Whether this Mark was Bishop of Alexandria, or only a transient Evangelist there a while, is an Historical Controversie.

1713.  Swift, Cadenus & Vanessa, 768. Love, hitherto a transient guest, Ne’er held possession of his breast.

1731.  Sir J. Clerk, in Mem. W. Stukeley (Surtees), I. 247. There are many transient fowls that come into Britain at certain seasons.

1740.  W. Douglass, Disc. Curr. Brit. Plant. Amer., 3. The Author is not a transient Person, who from Humour or Caprice … may expose the Province.

1788.  Massachusetts Spy, 11 Dec., 3/2. A transient jockey came to the house of Mr. Jonathan Hubbey, and agreed to purchase a horse of him.

1822.  Montgomery, Hymn, ‘This stone to Thee in faith we lay,’ v. But will, indeed, Jehovah deign Here to abide, no transient guest?

  5.  Mus. Introduced in passing, as a note, chord, etc., not belonging to the harmony, or to the key, of the passage; passing.

1801.  in Busby, Dict. Mus.

1838.  G. F. Graham, Mus. Comp., 29/2. Passing notes, changing notes, transient notes, etc.

1878.  F. Taylor, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 75/1. A so-called ‘auxiliary note’ (sometimes ‘transient’ or ‘changing’ note).

  B.  sb.

  1.  A transient thing or being; something passing or transitory, not permanent.

1652.  Sparke, Prim. Devot. (1663), 279. If we (meanwhile) but rise from graves of sin And transients (which the most are buried in!).

1661.  Glanvill, Van. Dogm., 81. A kind of stop or arrest, by the benefit of which the Soul might have a glance of the fugitive Transient.

a. 1674.  Traherne, Poet. Wks. (1903), 18.

1860.  Boyd, Recr. Country Parson, ii. 27. These gray transients have changed to shivering skeletons.

  2.  U. S. colloq. A person who passes through a place, or stays in it only for a short time; spec. a ‘transient guest’ at a hotel or boarding-house.

1880.  Ellen H. Rollins (‘E. H. Arr’), New Eng. Bygones, iv. 60. My grandmother held these ‘transients’ in low esteem.

1893.  Kate Sanborn, A Truthful Woman S. California, iii. 20. The Horton House is on an open, sunny site, and is frequented by ‘transients’ and business men of moderate means.

1894.  Outing (U.S.), XXIV. 260/1. Summer residents, transients, and all, had turned out early.