v. Obs. exc. Hist. Also 5–7 transsume. [ad. (post-Aug.) L. tran(s)sūmĕre, f. trans across, over + sūmĕre to take, seize; in med.L. transsumĕre, transsumptāre, to transcribe, make a copy of. Cf. OF. transumer (1482 in Godef.).]
1. trans. To make an official copy of a (legal) document; = EXEMPLIFY 7. Obs. exc. Hist.
1482. in Rymer, Foedera (1711), XII. 165/1. We have Decerned … the said Letters to be Exemplified and Transsumed.
1533. St. Papers Hen. VIII., I. 413. That the same Acte may be impressed, transumed, and set up on every churche dore.
1541. Records of Elgin (1903), I. 64. Ane transump and instrument transsumit out of Master Androu Cheves prothogall buik.
1545. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 10. The autentik copy of the said letter of merk autentikly transumyt in the toun of Arkis under the sele of the tabellioun and keparis of the sele of the vecunty of Arkis.
1598. D. Wedderburn, Compt Bk. (S.H.S.), 151. David Ostlar … restis awin me a Crown for transuming Andro Ostlaris barnis Seasingis.
1693, 1765–8. [see TRANSUMPT sb.].
1881. S. R. Macphail, Relig. Ho Pluscardyn, xi. 107. The original bull … having been produced in court to be transumed.
† 2. To take from one to another, take over; to transfer, transport. Obs.
1483. Caxton, Pilgr. Sowle, IV. xxix. 76. This word statua, whiche that we transumen in to Englysshe, that is to mene an Image.
1627. W. Sclater, Exp. 2 Thess. (1629), 184. Termes properly belonging to time, are yet sometimes transsumed to denote what is pertinent to eternity.
1630. Lord, Relig. Persees, 17. The Angell … bade him close his eyes, and he would transume and rappe him vp into that place of glory.
1656. [? J. Sergeant], trans. T. White’s Peripat. Inst., 382. Physicians affirm … the Seed of the Man disappears, being transum’d into the Flesh of the Woman.
† 3. To transmute, change, convert (into something else).
1579. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 155. The bread and wine are transsumed. Ibid. Though we take the word of transuming for changing, turning, transmuting, or transelementing,… yet meane they not chaunge of one substance into another.
1652. Crashaw, Carmen Deo Nostro, Wks. (1904), 249. With a well-bles’t bread and wine Transsum’d, and taught to turn divine.
† b. intr. for pass. TRANSMUTE v. 1 c. Obs. rare.
1480. Caxton, Ovid’s Met., XV. iv. They [the four elements] be wont to transume, that one into that other.
¶ Some instances of transume in early printed books or modern editions from MS. are mis-readings of transmue: see quots. below; and in some of the passages quoted above in senses 2 and 3, transmue was possibly the author’s word. It is possible that sense 3 originated in this confusion of form between transume and transmue.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 140/2. He … transumeth the payne perpetuell [Fr. orig. le muement de la paine de purgatoyre; Lat. orig. poenae purgatoriae … commutatio] … in to payne temporell.
1502. Ord. Crysten Men, V. vi. (W. de W.), qq iv b. The soule shall be in suche wyse transumed [Fr. orig. transmuce] in god.
1543. Harding’s Chron., CLXXVI. iv. Syr Hugh … was transumed [rhymes pursued, renewed] In high estate.
1909. ed. of Pecock’s Bk. of Faith, c. 1456, p. 157. The siȝt is the principal outward wit, and therfore his name may be transumed [MS. (Trin. Coll. Camb.) transmued] in to the name of ech othere outward witt.
