Etymology

transept

T1R1A1N1S1E1P3T1

Today it means: The transversal part of a church, which crosses at right angles to the greatest length, and between the nave and choir. In the basilicas, this had often no projection at its two ends. In Gothic churches these project greatly, and should be called the arms of the transept. It is common, however, to speak of the arms themselves as the transepts. Full definition →

French transept ← New Latin transeptum ← Latin trans-
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromtrans-“across”
  2. New Latin · derived fromtranseptum
  3. French · borrowed fromtransept
  4. English todaytransept

From French transept, from New Latin transeptum, from Latin trans- (“across”) + saeptum (“fence, partition, enclosure”).

Words from the same roots

Latintrans- all →

trans-

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.