[f. L. transmigrāt-, ppl. stem of (very rare) transmigrāre, f. trans, TRANS- + migrāre to MIGRATE. Cf. mod.F. transmigrer (16th c. in Godef.).]
1. intr. To remove or pass from one place to another; esp. of persons, or a tribe: to move from one place of abode to another, to migrate.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 91. The Longobardes … being exceedingly multiplied in their owne country, transmigrated into a bordering Island.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VI. x. This complexion … is evidently maintained by generation,… the Natives which transmigrate, omit it not without commixture.
1723. Pres. St. Russia, II. 66. They are transmigrating from one Place to another.
a. 1797. H. Walpole, George II. (1847), I. ix. 269. The well affected clans might be induced to transmigrate to those settlements.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 1 April, 3/1. He found a wider space on the other side, so he transmigrated and slumbered in peace.
b. trans. in causal sense: To transfer, transport. (In quots. only in passive.)
1430–40. [see prec.].
1635. Heywood, Hierarch., VII. Notes 463. Excellent Spirits … are rather transmigrated from the earth, to reigne with the Powers aboue.
1745. Eliza Heywood, Female Spect., No. 11 (1748), II. 216. To try the experiment, Whether, by transferring the blood or one animal into another, the nature of the creature would be transmigrated also.
2. intr. spec. Of the soul: To pass after death into another body.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. vii. 51. What manner o thing is your Crocodile?… It liues by that which nourisheth it, and the Elements once out of it, it Transmigrates.
1616. B. Jonson, Epigr., cxxxiii. 139. Their spirits transmigrated to a cat.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 43. I think my soul would transmigrat into some tree, when she bids this body farewell.
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., II. (1709), 174. Methinks I should be loath to Transmigrate into a Child, or lie in a Cradle, with those few Things I have in my Head.
1883. Gilmour, Mongols, xvii. 202. If souls do not transmigrate, where do they come from at birth, whither do they go at death?
b. trans. (causal). To cause to pass: cf. 1 b.
c. 1559. R. Hall, Life Bp. Fisher, iii. (1655), 32. Luther’s Soul was transmigrated into Henry the eighth.
1681. Rycaut, trans. Gracian’s Critick, 119. The Souls of evil livers, whom God … had transmigrated into the Bodies of these irrational Creatures.
1876. A. B. Grosart, in Wordsworth’s Pr. Wks., I. Pref. 33. A monkey with a man’s soul somehow transmigrated into it.
c. transf. and fig.
1646. E. G., in M. Ll[uelyn], Men-Miracles, etc., A v. While the grosse Bodies of the Poets die, Their Souls doe onely shift. And Poesie Transmigrates, not by chance, or lucke.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 186. Desire … To Love transmigrates when it dies.
1834. Ht. Martineau, Moral, IV. 144. The genius of society has before transmigrated through forms as horrid and disgusting as these.
1850. Lynch, Theo. Trin., v. 86. Philosophies die or transmigrate.
Hence Transmigrated, Transmigrating ppl. adjs.
1682. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 55 (1713), II. 98. Whether our Whigs … are not transmigrated Lice, who thrive and increase most in Hospitals and upon poor People?
1693. Dryden, Persius’ Sat., VI. 22. Who, in a drunken Dream beheld his Soul The Fifth within the Transmigrating roul.
1728. Pope, Dunc., III. 49. Who knows how long, thy transmigrating soul Might from Bœtian to Bœtian roll!
1754. Foote, Knights, I. Wks. 1799, I. 62. The very abstract of penury! Sir John Cutler, with his transmigrated stockings, was but a type of him.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 28 July, 2/3. To consider … more mundane matters, such as the number and characters of the transmigrating households.
