Obs. Also 5 -auns, -aunce, 5–6 -awnce, -ens(e, 6 treasance. [ad. med.L. tre-, trisantia, of uncertain meaning, but app. the covered passage round a cloister: see Du Cange, ed. 1887. Etymology obscure: perh. tres- = L. trans-.]
1. A passage in or through a house; a corridor.
1428. in Heath, Grocers’ Comp. (1869), 6. The seide parlore and the tresance lattizid, glazid, and selyd.
[1429–30. in Hope, Windsor Castle (1913), 395. Pro factura ostii de la tresaunt in capella.]
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 502/1. Tresawnce, in a howse…, transitus.
c. 1475. Crabhouse Reg. (1889), 58. The tresense fro the chawmbur dore to the halle dore.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 291 b. I mette hym in a tresawnce: where one of the bothe muste go backe.
1579. Twyne, Phisicke agst. Fort., I. cxviii. 148. His other Gallerie and large Treasance.
[1851. Turner, Dom. Archit., I. v. 233 (Roll of 35 Hen. III.). Wainscote also the tresance [tresancia] between the hall and the aforesaid bed-chamber.]
2. ? A window; ? a lattice or screen.
1510. Stanbridge, Vocab. (W. de W.), B j b. Transcenna, a tresens. [1525 est fenestra in summitate domus.]
1530. Palsgr., 282/2. Tresens drawen over an estates chambre, ciel.
