a. [f. TRANS- 3 + L. pons, pont-em bridge + -INE1. Cf. F. transpontin (16th c. in Godef., Compl.).] That is across or over a bridge; spec. on the other side of the bridges in London, i.e., south of the Thames; transf. (from the style of drama in vogue in the 19th century at the ‘Surrey-side’ theatres), melodramatic, sensational.
1837. Jackson’s Oxford Jrnl., 2 Dec., 2/3. It [a toll] is peculiarly unfair to the fair;—not the fair sex, but the Michaelmas fair of Lechlade, inasmuch as it checks the influx of the Ultra’s or Transpontine visitors to that ‘feast of reason and flow of soul!’
1844. Alb. Smith, Fort. Scatterg. Fam., ix. It was Monday evening, sacred to the pits and galleries of transpontine theatres.
1860. Mrs. P. Byrne, Undercurrents Overlooked, I. 78. The … Metropolitan theatres, cispontine and transpontine.
1876. C. M. Davies, Unorth. Lond., 130. I was wandering in transpontine London one Sunday morning.
1882. De Windt, Equator, 132. Triana, a transpontine suburb [of Seville], is worth a visit in the daytime.
1901. Scotsman, 9 April, 5/4. A new drama strongly seasoned with transpontine flavour.
