Also 4 (Sc.), 6 translat, 5–6 traunslate, 6 Sc. translait. Pa. t. and pple. translated; also 4–6 translate, (pa. pple.) translat. [Prob. first used in translat(e pa. pple., ad. L. translāt-us, pa. pple. of transferre to TRANSFER. The pa. pple. soon became transīat-ed, and translate the verb stem (see -ATE suffix3). But the verb may also immediately repr. F. translater (12th c. in Godef.). Cf. also med.L. translātāre (11th c. in Du Cange).]
I. 1. trans. To bear, convey, or remove from one person, place or condition to another; to transfer, transport; spec. to remove a bishop from one see to another, or a bishop’s seat from one place to another, and, in Scotland, a minister from one pastoral charge to another; also, to remove the dead body or remains of a saint, or, by extension, a hero or great man, from one place to another.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 9162 (Cott.). Helias was in þat siquare, Translated in a golden chiare. Ibid., 9220. Þe Iuues now er put o state And þair kingrik translate.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 203. Þis is þe same Hubert, þat we saw of nam, Þat translate S. Gilbert in þe hous of Sempyngham.
1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., II. 318. We witen þat we ben translatid fro deþ to lyf.
1433. Lydg., St. Fremund, 819. The Bysshop … Translatyd hym to Dunstaple.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), II. 77. The seete of the metropolitan of alle Wales, whiche was translate afterwarde to Meneuia.
1517. Torkington, Pilgr. (1884), 49. Hys body was translat to Rome.
1529. S. Fish, Supplic. Beggars (Arb.), 13. Then shall not youre … power, crowne, dignitie … be translated from you.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 41. Plante and translate the crabbe tree, where … it please you, and it wyll neuer beare sweete Apple.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 106. Hee translated the highest seat both of spirituall and Temporall Regiment to Jerusalem.
1625. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 445. He translated ye Vestrie.
1651. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., II. xxviii. (1739), 131. This Headship was translated to the King.
1663. Wood, Life (O.H.S.), I. 472. After he had taken in another class of six there, he translated himself to the house of Arthur Tylliard an apothecary.
c. 1683. Burnet, Orig. Mem., in Own Time (1902), I. Suppl. 67. Morley, made at first bishop of Worcester, and soon after … translated to Winchester.
1794. J. Hutton, Philos. Light, etc. 47. Heat is translated among bodies in a certain manner, and electricity in another.
1865. Pall Mall G., April, 4. A discussion has arisen on the question whether the Charterhouse School ought or ought not to be translated into the country.
1869. Freeman, Norm. Conq., III. xv. § 5. 518. The body of Harold, first buried under the cairn by Hastings, was afterwards translated to his own minster at Waltham.
1904. R. Small, Hist. U. P. Congregat., I. 503. In 1829 … the Synod at his own request, and without a vote, refused to translate.
b. To carry or convey to heaven without death; also, in later use, said of the death of the righteous.
1382. Wyclif, Heb. xi. 5. Bi feith Enok is translatid, that he schulde not se deeth; and he was not founden, for the Lord translatide him.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 213. And so schulde þe body … be translated and chaunged in þe blisse of heuene wiþ oute deienge and deeþ.
1535. Coverdale, Wisd. iv. 10. He pleased God,… so that where as he lyued amonge synners, he translated him.
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3809/1. That after a long and happy Enjoyment of this your Earthly Crown, you may be translated to one Immortal.
1798. Coleridge, Fears in Solitude, 121. As if the wretch, Who fell in battle … Passed off to Heaven, translated and not killed.
1848. Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850), 331. She was ninety years of age when the Lord translated her.
1904. Jebb, in Proc. Brit. Acad., 3. Here, and here alone, the Hyperborean land is an Elysium to which mortals are translated without dying.
c. Med. To remove the seat of (a disease) from one person, or part of the body, to another. Now rare or Obs.
1732. Arbuthnot, Aliments, etc., 366. To translate the Morbifick Matter upon the Extremities of the Body.
1754. J. Bartlet, Farriery (ed. 2), 105. The humours frequently settle, or are translated to the lungs, and other bowels.
1769. E. Bancroft, Guiana, 394. The patient is either relieved, or the disease translated on the extremities.
1826. Southey, in Q. Rev., XXXIV. 330. He could … cure a carbuncle … by making upon it the sign of a cross, and translate swellings from his pupil’s arm to his own.
d. Physics. To move (a body) from one point or place to another without rotation: cf. TRANSLATION 1 f.
II. 2. To turn from one language into another; ‘to change into another language retaining the sense’ (J.); to render; also, to express in other words, to paraphrase. (The chief current sense.)
a. 1300. Cursor M., 232. Þis ilk bok it es translate In to Inglis tong to rede.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 167. For he of frensche þis fayre tale ferst dede translate.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 329 (Balade). Thow hast translatid the romauns of the rose.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 2. It was translated out of latyn in to frenshe.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, I. xxxi. (Arb.), 75. Doctour Phaer one that … excellently well translated into English verse Heroicall certaine bookes of Virgils Æneidos.
1689–90. Temple, Ess. Poetry, Wks. 1731, I. 241. The first Change of Poetry was made by translating it into Prose.
1693. Dryden, Disc. Orig. Progr. Satire, Ess. (ed. Ker), II. 92. ’Tis only for a poet to translate a poem.
1776. Johnson, 11 April, in Boswell. Poetry … cannot be translated; and, therefore, it is the poets that preserve languages.
1850. Whipple, Ess. & Rev. (ed. 3), I. 300. If the phrase, realizing the ideal, were translated into the phrase, actualizing the real, much ambiguity might be avoided.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vii. § 1. 342. Retiring to Hamburg Tyndale translated the Gospels and Epistles.
b. absol. To practise translation; to make a version from one language or form of words into another; also intr. for pass., of a language, speech, or writing: To bear or admit of translation.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., I. 735. Yet as myn auctor spak so wold I speke Sith I translate, and looth am from hym breke.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 253. If you translate out of the Latine speach, into the Greeke.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., III. iv. § 9. This is to translate, and not to define, when we change two words of the same signification one for another.
1731. Fielding, Author’s Farce, II. v. The rogue had a trick of translating out of the shops as well as the languages.
1812. Southey, Omniana, II. 30. Claudian throughout would translate better than any of the ancients. Ibid. (1827), Lett. (1856), IV. 64. The Welsh, I suspect, is not a language which translates well.
1831. Macaulay, Ess., Johnson (1887), 194. Sometimes Johnson translated aloud.
† c. To use in a metaphorical or transferred sense: see translated, quot. 1553, and cf. TRANSLATE a., TRANSLATION 4. Obs.
3. fig. To interpret, explain; to expound the significance of (conduct, gestures, etc.); also, to express (one thing) in terms of another.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. iii. 54. He hath studied her will; and translated her will: out of honesty, into English. Ibid. (1602), Ham., IV. i. 3. There’s matters in these sighes…. These profound heaues You must translate.
1850. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863), 55. The emblem has been translated into a fact, or rather into a miracle.
1892. Westcott, Gospel of Life, 58. Right Doctrine is an inexhaustible spring of strength if it be translated into deed.
1903. Westm. Gaz., 26 March, 1/2. The delightful Norwegian master who … translates the nature of Norway … into music.
III. 4. To change in form, appearance, or substance; to transmute; to transform, alter; spec. in industrial use: of a tailor, to renovate, turn, or cut down (a garment); of a cobbler, to make new boots from the remains of (old ones).
c. 1386. Chaucer, Clerk’s T., 329. Vnnethe the peple hire knew for hire fairnesse Whan she translated [v.rr. transmewed, transformed] was in swich richesse.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., viii. How that eche estate As fortune lykith, thame will oft translate.
1487–8. Rec. St. Mary at Hill, 138. For a man werkyng iij dayes & di. in the house … in translatyng of the steyer and in mendyng of wyndowes.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), II. 72. Quhare he translatit the tempill of Apollo in ane abbay of his ordour.
1543–4. Act 35 Hen. VIII., c. 8. No man … shall cutt mynisshe or translate … any barrelles kilderkyns or firkyns.
1575–7. Fenton, Gold. Epist. (1582), 160. To translate an auncient garment, and reduce him to the present fashion.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. i. 122. Blesse thee Bottome, blesse thee; thou art translated.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. I. ii. (1628), 40. Nabuchadnezar was really translated into a beast.
1718. J. Fox, Wanderer, 14. I was waiting in Expectation of my own Change, and wondering … what Sort of Being I should be translated to.
1815. Q. Rev., Oct., 129. A place near Monmouth-street, where ‘they translate old shoes into new ones.’
1905. Preece & Sivewright, Telegraphy, viii. 194. Varley introduced repeaters at Amsterdam to translate the English double-current system of working into the Continental single-current system.
5. To re-transmit (a telegraphic message) by means of an automatic repeater.
1855. [implied in TRANSLATING station].
6. To transport with the strength of some feeling; to enrapture, entrance. arch.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 49. That elegant Apostle, which seemed to have a glimpse of Heaven,… was translated out of himself to behold it.
1849. Longf., Ev., I. iv. 104. Their souls, with devotion translated, Rose on the ardour of prayer.
1899. Dixon, in Mackail, W. Morris, I. 115. There was no train…. I was made aware of this by a fearful cry in my ears, and saw Morris ‘translated.’
Hence Translated (in quot. 1553, metaphorical: cf. TRANSLATE a.), Translating ppl. adjs.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 174. When thei maie haue most apt wordes at hand, yet wil thei of a purpose vse translated words.
1632. Sherwood, Eng. & Fr. Dict., To Rdr. First the Proper [interpretation]; then, the Translated and Metaphoricall.
1687. T. Brown, Saints in Uproar, Wks. 1730, I. 82. See these translating gentlemen translated to the quarter of lunaticks.
1727. Pope, Macer, 21. In a translated Suit, then tries the Town, With borrow’d Pins, and Patches not her own.
1729. Swift, Direct. Serv., iv. Wks. (1869), 569. Your wages … spent in translated red-heeled shoes.
1868. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, ix. (1870), 364. Any deceased or translated hero.
1904. R. Small, Hist. U. P. Congreg., I. 552. The court came to adjudicate upon a translating call to Mr. Jaffray from Dalry.
