[a. OF. translation (12th c. in Godef., Compl.), or ad. L. translātiōn-em a transporting, translation, n. of action f. translāt-, ppl. stem of transferre to TRANSFER.] The action of translating (or its result).
I. 1. Transference; removal or conveyance from one person, place, or condition to another.
spec. The removal of a bishop from one see to another; in the Church of Scotland, the removal of a minister from one charge to another; also, the removal of the body or relics of a saint to another place of interment.
a. 1350. St. Stephen, 211, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1881), 30. Of þat ilk translacioun Es named saynt Steuyn inuencioun.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., II. 318. Þis translacioun is better þan worldly translacioun of þe pope.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 30. Of summe relykys to make a translacyoun.
1473–4. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 52. The translacione of the parliament fra Sanctandros to Edinburgh.
1485. Caxton, St. Wenefr., 13. Her bones were broughte to thabbay of Shrewsbury, whiche translacion is halowed the 19 day of Septembre.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lv. § 8. Ascension into heauen, is a plaine locall translation of Christ according to his manhood.
1612. Brerewood, Lang. & Relig., 12. The translation of the imperial seat to Constantinople.
1635. Swan, Spec. M. (1670), 198. A fifth [effect of Earthquakes] is the translation of Mountains &c. unto some other places.
1647. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., I. xi. (1739), 22. After the Translation of the Sea from Thetford to Norwich.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 188. The necessary forms for the Translation [of Laud from London to Canterbury].
1777. J. Adams, Wks. (1854), IX. 470. The rapid translation of property from hand to hand.
1869. Freeman, Norm. Conq., III. xi. § 2. 34. That the Feast of the Translation of Saint Eadward should be kept … on the eve of the day of Saint Calixtus.
1910. in Halsbury, Laws of Eng., XI. 400, note. The fees paid by the late Archbishop Magee on his translation to York amounted to £573 6s.
b. fig. of non-material things.
Translation of a feast (Eccl.), its transference from the usual date to another, to avoid its clashing with another (movable) feast of superior rank.
c. 1530. T. Cox, Rhet. (1899), 82. Translacion of the faut is, whan he that confesseth his faut, sayeth that he dyd it, moued by the indignacion of the malycyouse dede of an other.
1552. Abp. Hamilton, Catech. (1884), 8. The translatioun of the sabboth day to the sonday.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 151. Imputation: by which there is a kinde of translation or putting ouer of the beleeuers sinne vnto Christ, and of Christs righteousnesse to the beleeuer.
1681–6. J. Scott, Chr. Life (1747), III. vii. 153. The very Translation of the Guilts of the People upon them.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., II. 549. A Translation of Punishment and Guilt, from the Person offering to the thing offered.
c. Removal from earth to heaven, orig. without death, as the translation of Enoch; but in later use also said fig. of the death of the righteous.
1382. Wyclif, Heb. xi. 5. Enok … bifore translacioun he hadde witnessing for to haue plesid God.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., II. § 6. Time, Experience, self-Reflexions, and God’s mercies, make in some well-temper’d minds a kind of translation before Death.
1727. De Foe, Syst. Magic, I. i. (1840), 12. A glorious example of such faith as was rewarded with an immediate translation of the person [Enoch] into heaven.
1760. G. Whitefield, Lett., 29 Oct. (in Pearson’s Catal. [1894], 64). Blessed be God for supporting me so well under the news of dear Mr. Polhill’s sudden translation.
1878. Gladstone, Prim. Homer, v. 61. The Islands of the Blest, to which Menelaos has a promise of translation on his death.
d. Med. Transference of a disease from one person or part of the body to another. Now rare or Obs.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., II. xiii. (1848), 140. Madness … by the translation of the Humours into the Brain.
1732. Arbuthnot, Aliments, etc. 368. Translations of Morbific Matter in Acute Distempers.
1857. Dunglison, Dict. Med. Sc., Metastasis … translation. A change in the seat of a disease; attributed, by the Humorists, to the translation of the morbific matter to a part different from that which it had previously occupied.
e. Astrol. (See quots.)
1658. in Phillips. Ibid. (1706), (ed. Kersey), Translation of Light and Nature, a Phrase us’d by Astrologers, when a light Planet separates from a more weighty one, and presently joyns another more heavy.
1819. J. Wilson, Compl. Dict. Astrol., 378. Translation of the light and nature of a planet is when a planet separates from one that is slower than itself and overtakes another by conjunction or aspect.
f. Physics. Transference of a body, or form of energy, from one point of space to another. Motion or movement of translation: onward movement without (or considered apart from) rotation; sometimes as distinguished from a reciprocating movement as in a wave or vibration.
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. (1726), I. 157. The Ratio of the Translations will be compounded of the Ratio of the Differences of the Angular Motions, and of the Ratio of the Distances from the Axis.
1794. J. Hutton, Philos. Light & Heat, 47. We should conclude that the translation of heat, among bodies, is not performed according to the laws observed in that of light.
1854. Moseley, Astron., viii. (1874), 34. This mass when left to itself will have two motions, one a motion of translation,… the other, a motion … of rotation.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxvii. 215. Though the limbs were incessantly exerted, it was, for a time, a mere motion of vibration without any sensible translation.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 171. The motion of the water is a movement of undulation and not of translation.
1884. J. S. Russell (title), The Wave of Translation in its Application to the Three Oceans of Water, Air, and Ether.
II. 2. The action or process of turning from one language into another; also, the product of this; a version in a different language.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, Prol. In þe translacioun i folow þe lettere als mykyll as i may.
1382. Wyclif, N. T., 595. Thei setten in her translaciouns oneli the names of thre thingis, that is of water, of blood, and of spirit.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys, Introd. (Roxb.), 4. Thys translacyon … In to oure language.
1535. Coverdale, Bible, Ded. I thought it my dutye … to dedicate this translacyon vnto youre hyghnesse.
1549. (title) The Byble in Englyshe, that is the olde and new Testament, after the translacion appoynted to bee read in the Churches.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem. (Arb.), 92. Translation, is easie in the beginning for the scholer.
1581. Pettie, Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., I. (1586), A iij. To present unto you the first sight of this my translation.
c. 1650. Denham, To Sir R. Fanshawe, 10. Nor ought a genius less than his that writ, Attempt translation.
1682. Dryden, Relig. Laici, 242. Various readings and translations.
1805. N. Nicholls, Corr. w. Gray (1843), 37. Pope’s translation of the Iliad stood very high in his estimation.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, I. iii. 94. His translations in verse from Horace and Virgil were often approved by Dr. Adam.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vi. § 3. 291. He [Caxton] stood between two schools of translation, that of French affectation and English pedantry.
b. transf. and fig. The expression or rendering of something in another medium or form, e.g., of a painting by an engraving or etching; also concr.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 51. Some thousand Verses of a faithfull Louer. A huge translation of hypocrisie, Vildly compiled, profound simplicitie.
1812. R. H., in Examiner, 30 Nov., 763/2. His translations on copper, to compare them with … verbal translations…, display much of the elegance of Pope.
1829. Chapters Physical Sc., xxiv. 308. That correctness of reasoning which … exhibits a faithful translation of the language of facts.
1829. Examiner, 805/1. Engravers … have here hung up their translations from the works of our landscape and other painters.
1864. Athenæum, 27 Feb., 305/3. A system of copying which demands two translations,—that of the draughtsman and that of the chromo-lithographer.
3. Transformation, alteration, change; changing or adapting to another use; renovation.
1382. Wyclif, Heb. vii. 12. Forsothe the presthod translatid, it is nede that and translacioun [1611 change] of lawe be maad.
c. 1470[?]. Ashby, Active Policy of Prince, 156. The ruine Of high estates, and translacion, That to vices and outrage dud incline, For the whiche thei suffred mutacion.
1534. More, Treat. Passion, Wks. 1344/1. The translacion or chaunging of it from thynges sensible to thynges intelligible.
1582. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 349. Of wages, workemanship, Translations, Attendaunces.
1604. R. Cawdrey, Table Alph., Translation, altering, chaunging.
b. spec. (in workmen’s use) The process of ‘translating’ boots (see TRANSLATE v. 4).
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour (1861), II. 34. Translation … is this—to take a worn, old pair of shoes or boots, and by repairing them make them appear as if left off with hardly any wear.
1865. in Ruskin, Sesame, 90. Her son sat up the whole night to make the ‘translations’ [of old boots].
† 4. Rhet. Transference of meaning; metaphor; = TRALATION. Obs.
1538. Elyot, Metaphora, a translation of wordes frome their propre sygnifycation.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 174. Men vse translation of wordes (called Tropes) for neede sake, when thei can not finde other.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. vii. § 17. That excellent use of a metaphor or translation.
1652. Urquhart, Jewel, Wks. (1834), 292. With words diminishing the worth of a thing, tapinotically, periphrastically, by rejection, translation, and other meanes.
III. 5. Law. A transfer of property; spec. alteration of a bequest by transferring the legacy to another person.
1590. Swinburne, Testaments, 280. Translation of a legacie is a bestowing of the same vpon an other.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. xiv. 67. All Contract is mutuall translation, or change of Right.
1754. Erskine, Princ. Sc. Law (1809), 342. If the assignee conveys his right to a third person, it is called a translation.
1875. Poste, Gaius, IV. Comm. (ed. 2), 490. No translation of property is operated by theft.
6. In long distance telegraphy, the automatic retransmission of a message by means of a relay.
1866. F. M. Ferguson, Electr. (1870), 245. It would be advisable to … resend at the mid-station by translation.
1876. Preece & Sivewright, Telegraphy, iv. § 113. The circuit can be divided, and the repeating station can work separately … without translation.
IV. 7. attrib., as translation element, movement, right, work; translation wave, an ocean wave with a propelling or forward impulse; a forced wave.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Amusem. Ser. & Com., Voy., ii. Wks. 1709, III. I. 14. He has so mortified himself … that the Translation-Bill may not pass.
1862. Dana, Man. Geol., IV. 655. The ocean-waves, which the earthquake, if submarine, may produce, have an actual forward impulse, and are, therefore, forced or translation waves. Ibid., 729. The sound-wave may be felt before the translation wave, and may travel farther.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., II. v. § 56 (1875), 183. What we may call the translation element in Motion.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, i. 5. Slight translation movements of the pigment particles.
1906. Westm. Gaz., 15 Oct., 4/2. Their respective delegates have agreed to extend the period during which authors can protect their translation rights.
