Etymology

transom

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Today it means: A crosspiece over a door; a lintel. Full definition →

Middle English traunsom ← Latin trānstrum
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromtrānstrum“crossbeam”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromtraunsom
  3. English todaytransom

From Middle English traunsom; probably an alteration of Latin trānstrum (“crossbeam”).

Words from the same roots

Latintrānstrum all →

over the transom

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.