Also 5 trancyte, 5–7 transite. [ad. L. transit-us (-ū stem), verbal sb. from transīre to cross, f. trans across + īre to go. So It. transito, whence Fr. transit (17th c.).]
1. The action or fact of passing across or through; passage or journey from one place or point to another. Often in phrase in transit, L. in transitu.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., ii. 12 (Add. MS.). Above oure hede there is a transite of men [Harl. passage and goyng of peple].
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., II. 171. Henry … of Huntington…, who writ ten Books Historiæ Anglorum, from the Transit and Introit of the Saxons hither, to the Year 1153.
1766. W. Digby, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1843), II. 12. I lay at Gloucester in my transit.
1833. Ritchie, Wand. Loire, 27. Sometimes … the transit from Nantes to Orleans takes two months!
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind., xlvi. II. 87. I … made a transit across the prairies.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., vii. (1856), 50. Of the voyages to Lancaster Sound … the transit of the middle ice is the essential feature.
1877. Black, Green Past., xxxii. In our rapid transit from place to place.
† b. concr. A way for passing, a passage.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 499/2. Trancyte, where menn walke, transitus.
c. The passage or carriage of persons or goods from one place to another.
1800. Colquhoun, Comm. Thames, viii. 259. Property … stationary on the Quays or in transit on the River.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiii. III. 254. While he governed, no prohibition … impeded the transit of commodities from any part of the island to any other.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xx. 504. The cost of carriage. Occasionally … this is charged in the value given, the transit being … undertaken frequently by common carriers.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 62. The means of transit are so bad, that much good corn is left to rot upon the ground.
d. transf. A place at which a river may be crossed; a crossing. rare.
1852. Grote, Greece, II. lxix. IX. 39. A … flourishing town, a centre of commerce enriched by the important ford or transit of the river Euphrates close to it.
2. fig. (in various senses.) A passing across; a transition or change; esp. the passage from this life to the next by death.
1657. W. Morice, Coena quasi Κοινὴ, Diat. v. 237. There can be no such transite from one kinde of action to another.
1765. H. Walpole, Otranto, iii. (1798), 50. To pray for her happy transit to a better life.
1810. Knox & Jebb, Corr., II. 19. The transit from autumn to winter.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., vi. Speak a word of comfort to him ere he make his transit, Trois-Eschelles.
1859. Holland, Gold F., xv. 182. Old men … whose work of life is … done, and who may in peace … sit down and wait their mysterious transit.
1871. Earle, Philol. Eng. Tongue, § 270. This verb made an early transit to the weak form.
3. Astrol. The passage of a planet across some special point or region of the zodiac.
[1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. I. iv. If ♄, by his revolution, or transitus, shall offend any of those radicall promissors in his geniture.]
1671. Salmon, Syn. Med., I. xxix. 6. In Directions and Transits three things are to be considered; first the Significator, secondly the Promissor; thirdly the sign and house in which they happen.
1819. J. Wilson, Dict. Astrol., s.v., The transits of the ☽ are said to cause all the daily passing events of a man’s life, as she transits the Δ, ☼, [char.], [char.], or [char.], of any particular house.
4. Astron. a. The passage of an inferior planet (Mercury or Venus) across the sun’s disk, or of a satellite or its shadow across the disk of a planet; formerly also applied to an occultation of a star or planet by the moon, or of a star by a planet.
1669. Flamstead, in Phil. Trans., IV. 1110. Let me desire those, who have fit … Instruments, to observe this Transit.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Transit, in Astronomy, signifies the passing of any Planet just by or under any Fixt Star; or of the Moon in particular, covering or moving close by any other planet.
1769. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), I. 20. The 3d of this month happened the Transit of Venus over the sun’s disk.
1769. Cook, Voy. round World, I. xiii. (1773), 137. On Thursday the 1st of June, the Saturday following being the day of the Transit, I dispatched Mr. Gore in the long-boat to Imao.
1829. Chapters Phys. Sc., 398. The transits of Mercury and Venus are really eclipses of the sun.
1868. Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens, III. II. i. (ed. 3), 478. The value of the Sun’s distance at present received has been deduced from the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769.
1910. Whitaker’s Almanack, 88. Only Satellite IV [of Jupiter] will be visible at 2:30 a.m. February 24—Satellite II. being in transit, Satellite III. occulted, and Satellite I. eclipsed.
transf. 1859. in Merc. Marine Mag. (1860), VII. 65. The Shoal first seen was in transit with Embleton Island, bearing N.E. 3/4 E.
b. The passage of a star or other celestial body across the meridian at its culmination.
1812. Woodhouse, Astron., viii. 48. Two successive transits of a star over the meridian.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., vii. 6. While observing transits of the fixed stars across the meridian at Cayenne.
c. Short for transit-circle, -compass, -instrument, or -theodolite: see 5. colloq.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 122/1. Transit, or Transit Instrument. Ibid., 122/2. Such an account of the transit as will enable any one to use it with tolerable success.
1879. Newcomb & Holden, Astron., 74. The meridian transit instrument, or briefly the ‘transit.’
1897. Edin. Rev., July, 66. The institution, furnished only with a transit when he took it in charge.
5. attrib. and Comb., usually in relation to the conveyance of goods and passengers, as transit-company, -depot, -road, -room, -time, -traffic, -way; also transit-circle, an astronomical instrument consisting of a telescope carrying a large graduated circle, by which the right ascension and declination of a star may be determined by observation of it in transit (sense 4 b); a meridian-circle; transit-clock, a clock used in conjunction with a transit-instrument; transit-compass, an instrument, resembling a theodolite, used in surveying for the measurement of horizontal angles; transit-duty, a duty paid on goods passing through a country; transit-instrument, an astronomical telescope mounted on a fixed east-and-west axis, by which the time of the passage of a celestial body across the meridian may be determined; usually applied to one without a circle (cf. transit-circle); transit-pass, a warrant to pass through a country without payment of duty; transit-theodolite = transit-compass; transit-trade, trade arising out of the passage of foreign goods through a country.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 133/1. A *transit circle may be made to answer both purposes.
1897. Edin. Rev., July, 68. In 1851 a new transit circle, of great optical power and enormous mechanical stability, superseded Troughton’s masterpiece of 1812.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 130/1. To have a second clock called a journeyman, which strikes loudly and speaks as it were for the *transit clock.
1845. R. Brown, in Mem., ii. (1866), 28. We got into one of the *Transit Company’s vans.
1887. Moloney, Forestry W. Afr., 248. The Public Works Department of each Colony offers a ready *transit-depot for such contributions.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., V. ii. II. 515. In some small states duties … are imposed upon goods carried across the territory … from one foreign country to another. These are in some countries called *transit-duties.
1809. State Papers, in Ann. Reg., 697/1. The transit duties on the goods thus imported or exported.
1812. Woodhouse, Astron., vi. 32. It may be used as a *transit instrument: that is, the presence of a star on the meridian may be ascertained by it.
1885. Times, 5 Aug., 4/5. The new *transit pass permits opium to circulate freely all over the Empire, and we may confidently look forward to the extension of this system to all trade.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 2 Sept., 7/3. Less … than it cost foreigners to bring it to Pakhio under transit-pass.
1861. J. Nichol, in Mem. (1896), 37. As regular as the *transit-room clock.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., II. XIII. 3. A first-rate 6-inch *transit theodolite,… with vertical and horizontal circles.
1803. Edin. Rev., III. 243. Those … nations whose wealth has been promoted by the *transit trade.
1852. Conybeare & H., St. Paul (1862), II. xxiii. 329. The Valley of the Nile was the channel of an active transit trade in spices, dyes, jewels, and perfumes.
1903. Expositor, May, 335. Jerusalem had no natural command of the *transit-traffic.
1904. Q. Rev., Oct., 341. The trade-winds … contribute greatly to the salubrity and comfort of this *transit-way.
