a. and sb. [ad. L. transversāri-us lying across: see TRANSVERSE and -ARY. Cf. F. transversaire (Littré).]

1

  † A.  adj. Transverse. Obs. rare–1.

2

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 148. Þe wesant … haþ noon [brawnys] transuersarie, þat is to seie goynge ouerþwert, for wiþholdynge is not nedeful to him.

3

  B.  sb. † 1. The transverse beam or member of a cross. Obs. rare–1. [L. transversarium cross-beam.]

4

a. 1608.  Dee, Relat. Spir., I. (1659), 185. Neither of the letters in the Transversary of the black Crosse.

5

  2.  A cross-piece or vane of a cross-staff. Hist.

6

1594.  J. Davis, Seaman’s Secr. (1607), 17. Your staffe so ordered, then moue the transversary upon your staffe to and fro as occasion requireth.

7

1638.  Oughtred, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), I. 31. For setting the degrees on the transversary.

8

1879.  A. Geikie, in Encycl. Brit., X. 187/1. The cross-staff was a very simple instrument, consisting of a graduated pole with cross pieces, called transversaries…, also graduated, which were fitted to work on it.

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