▪ I. trance, n.1
(trɑːns, -æ-)
Also 4–6 transe, 4–7 traunce, 5–7 traunse, trans, 6 trawnce, 6–7 traunss.
[a. F. transe fem., in OF. transe m. and f., passage, passage from life to death (St. Alexis, 12th c.), great apprehension or dread of coming evil (15th c. in Littré); verbal n. f. F. transir to pass, depart (esp. from life), to die (12th c.), also (later) to benumb or be numbed by fear or cold, ad. L. transīre to pass over, cross, f. trans across + īre to go. (Cf. Sp. trance danger, last stage of life, Pg. trance, transe a dreadful circumstance; cf. It. transito ‘a passage or going over; also a trance’ Florio).
Palsgrave has ‘Traunce a sickenesse, trance’, and Cotgr. has ‘also, a traunce or sowne; a great astonishment, amazement, or appallment’, but these senses do not appear in Littré or Godef.; perh. they were Anglo-Fr.; otherwise the chief mod. sense of the Eng. word does not appear in F.]
† 1. A state of extreme apprehension or dread; a state of doubt or suspense. Obs.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 1257 (1306) Troylus..That lay, as doth þese loueres, yn a traunce By-twixen hope and derk desesperaunce. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 321 This cherles herte is in a traunce, As he which drad him of vengance. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy iv. 1536 Þe verray custom & þe pleyn vsaunce Of þis loveris, hangyng in a trance. c 1477 Caxton Jason 46 b, She was in a traunce what she shold saye to her. 1523 Ld. Berners tr. Froiss. I. cccxliii. 542 Thus these maters hanged in a traunce. 1577 Grange Golden Aphrod. etc. P ij b, In this traunce of troubles my trembling tongue was partly enioyned to silence. |
2. An unconscious or insensible condition; a swoon, a faint; in mod. use, a state characterized by a more or less prolonged suspension of consciousness and inertness to stimulus; a cataleptic or hypnotic condition.
| c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 353 And longe tyme he lay forth in a traunce. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon lxii. 215 She fell downe in a transe, more lyke to be deed than alyue. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iv. i. Stage direct., [Othello] Falls in a Traunce. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 249 Most of the night he had lien in a trance. 1715–20 Pope Iliad xi. 462 Hector rose, recover'd from the trance. 1821 Byron Two Foscari i. i, Happy to escape to death By the compassionate trance, poor nature's last Resource against the tyranny of pain. 1852 H. Rogers Eclipse of Faith (1864) 296 Paulus thinks that Christ was only in a trance when he seemed to be dead. 1857 Dunglison Dict. Med. s.v. Ecstasis, In catalepsy, there is..complete suspension of the intellectual faculties. This last condition is in general described as trance. 1861 Geo. Eliot Silas M. vii, When Silas Marner was in that strange trance of his. 1899 Syd. Soc. Lex., Trance, catalepsy; ecstasy. The hypnotic state: a prolonged abnormal sleep, in which the vital functions are reduced to a very low ebb, and from which the patients cannot ordinarily be aroused. |
3. a. An intermediate state between sleeping and waking; half-conscious or half-awake condition; a stunned or dazed state.
| c 1386 Chaucer Sompn. T. 508 The lord sat stille, as he were in a traunce, And in his herte he rolled vp and doun. c 1420 ? Lydg. Assembly of Gods 15 And as I so lay half in a traunse, Twene slepyng and wakyng he bad me aryse. Ibid. 2063 All thys I saw as I lay in a traunce. c 1530 Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814) 245 The noble courte..is all in a traunce, in a maner halfe a slepe. 1549 Compl. Scot. xv. 123, I dee daly in ane transe. 1656 W. Montagu Accompl. Wom. 17 [They] cannot imagine pensivenesse to be any thing but such a trans, as mad men or sick persons are in. 1757 Gray Bard 13 Glos'ter stood aghast in speechless trance. |
b. A state of mental abstraction from external things; absorption, exaltation, rapture, ecstasy.
| 1434 Misyn Mending Life xii. 128 With swetnes of godis lufe as [he] wer rauischyd in trans, meruelusly rauischid. 1594 Spenser Amoretti xxxix, Whylest rapt with joy resembling heavenly madnes, My soule was ravisht quite as in a traunce. 1598 Bacon Sacr. Medit., Impostors, His..conuersation towards God is full of passion, of zeale, and of traunssis [mispr. tramisses; orig. plena excessus, et zeli, et extasis]. 1632 Lithgow Trav. i. 32 This imaginary heauenly trance. 1696 Phillips (ed. 5), Trance, an Extasy, a Ravishment or Transportation of the Mind, which puts a Man beside himself. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) II. 238 The saint is represented lying in a trance. 1817 Moore Lalla R., Lt. of Haram Wks. (1824) 313 As, in a kind of holy trance, She hung above those fragrant treasures. |
4. attrib. and Comb., as trance-coma, trance faculty, trance-medium, trance-mediumship, trance music, trance-personality, trance-sleep, trance speaker, trance-state, trance-subject, trance-utterance, trance-writing; trance-bound, trance-eyed, trance-like adjs.
| 1860 J. G. Whittier Home Ballads 90 Shine on us with the light which glowed Upon the trance-bound shepherd's way. |
| 1849 H. Mayo Truths Pop. Superstit. v. 82 So are there three degrees of trance-sleep... The middle grade deserves to be called trance-coma. |
| 1957 C. Day Lewis Pegasus 15 A bright bewildered April, a trance-eyed summer. |
| 1909 W. James Mem. & Stud. (1911) viii. 190 All the resources of the automatist, including his or her trance-faculty of telepathy. |
| 1903 F. W. H. Myers Hum. Personality I. 5 The exceptional trance-history of Emmanuel Swedenborg. |
| 1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan I. 137 Waking out of a trance⁓like revery. |
| 1878 Emerson Misc. Papers, Fort. Repub. Wks. (Bohn) III. 389 The trance-mediums..exasperate the common sense. 1886 H. R. Haweis Christ & Chr., Light of Ages v. 143 At Delphi..the priests..uttered what a modern spiritualist would call trance-speeches; they became..what are known as trance mediums. |
| 1870 Spiritualist 14 Jan. 37/3 One feature running through the whole range of trance-mediumship, is the fact that the media..feel symptoms of the death pains of the communicating spirits. 1961 Trance-mediumship [see control n. 4 b]. 1970 Guardian 5 June 9/4 The records cover the whole range of Ethiopian music..through cow milking songs to Moslem trance music. |
| 1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. I. viii. 211 The poor passive trance-personality had stuck for weeks in the stagnant dream. 1920 Trance speaker [see automatist 2]. |
| 1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. II. xxvii. 601 The suggestion-theory may therefore be approved as correct, provided we grant the trance-state as its prerequisite. 1978 Amer. Speech LIII. 59 Felicitas Goodman describes behavior in trance states accompanying glossolalia in congregations mostly in Mexico. |
| 1880 Trance-subject [see associate n. 7]. 1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. I. x. 394 One curious thing about trance-utterances is their generic similarity in different individuals. 1980 ‘S. Woods’ Weep for Her 51 So many things are involved{ddd}telepathy, clairvoyance, trance utterance, [etc.]. |
| 1911 W. F. Barrett Psychical Res. xv. 218 The group of controls..manifested themselves also in the trance-writings. |
▸ Any of various types of music characterized by rhythms and sounds which are intended to be hypnotic or trance-inducing; spec. a type of electronic dance music derived from Acid House and techno (cf. trance dance n. 2). Freq. attrib.
In the later spec. use, recorded earliest in trance dance (trance dance n. 2): see quot. 1988.
| 1980 N.Y. Times 4 Aug. c15/1 Lar Lubovitch is one choreographer who has been drawn by the music of such ‘trance’ music pioneers as Steve Reich and Philip Glass. 1988 Times (Nexis) 18 Aug. Distinct styles began to emerge. One was the eccentric and predominantly instrumental sound that has been called a 1980s equivalent of free jazz, music for contemplation, the dance-floor's answer to New Age music, trance dance and acid. 1990 Blitz Oct. 74 Asked to describe his musical preferences, Bicknell..merely mutters the word ‘trance’. 1992 i-D July 78/2 Superb trance house full of spot-on drum drops and trippy noise. 1997 New Yorker 28 Apr. 186/1 During her trips to see Etienne in Marrakech, Blanca had..been inspired by Gnawa, Morocco's trance music. 2000 Big Issue 4 Sept. 30/2 Block and Lisa Lashes justify the extravagant price tag as they pump those burned little brains with an ungodly diet of non-stop trance. |
▪ II. trance, transe, n.2 Sc.
(trɑːns, -æ-)
Also 6–7 transs, 6–9 trans.
[Known from 16th c.: origin obscure. The sense is satisfied by L. transitus, which had the concrete sense ‘passage, way through’, as well as the abstract ‘act of passing through or over’. But L. transitus could hardly have given Sc. transs, trans without passing through French, and the concrete sense is not recorded in OF.]
A passage between buildings, or across between two streets; an entry, an alley, a close; also, a passage into, within, or through a house.
| 1545 in Pennecuik Blue Blanket (1756) 34 Lands..lyand in the burgh of Edinburgh, upon the South-side of the high street thereof, betwixt the trans of the vennel called Hair's-closs, and the trans of the vennel called Borthwick's-closs. 1555 Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1871) II. 214 The Freir Wynd heid an ather syde of the trans of the Hie gait. a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 333 Quhilk was left waist of befoir, as transses and throw passagis. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 461 Carried..to the end of a Trance or stone-Gallery. 1659 Torriano, Passaggio..a trance from one room to another. a 1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1851) II. 327 [He] causit draw his horss out of the stables into the transs. 1826 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 156 He had hardly put his hat on a peg in the transe. 1835 Hogg Tales & Sk. (1837) V. 222 So proud of 'squiring Lady Jane Gordon down the stairs and along the trance. 1883 Chamb. Jrnl. 210 From this single street [of Lerwick] steep lanes or trances lead up to the ridge. |
| fig. 1632 Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 97 A little sight of that dark trance you must go through ere you come to glory. 1645 ― Tryal & Tri. Faith Ded. (1845) 4 Time is but a short trance: we are carried quickly through it. |
b. attrib. and Comb., as trance-door, trance-window.
| 1811 W. Aiton Agric. Surv. Ayrs. 114 The cattle..entered by the same door with the family; the one turning to the one hand, by the trans-door to the kitchen, and the other turning the contrary way by the heck-door to the byre or stable. 1880 J. F. S. Gordon Chron. Keith, etc. 66 Several juveniles had..attempted to escape by ‘the Trance window’ on to the roof of the Weigh House. 1890 J. Service Thir Notandums v. 25 At the trance door Provost Painch's fit took the boss. |
▪ III. trance, n.3 dial.
Also traunce.
[f. trance v.2]
? A skip, a dance; applied ironically, as in ‘a fine trance’, to a long tedious walk or tramp, a long tiring round.
| c 1746 J. Collier (Tim Bobbin) View Lanc. Dial. Wks. (1862) 40 I've had sitch o' traunce this Morning as eh neer had e' meh live. a 1800 Pegge Suppl. Grose, Trance, a tedious journey. Lanc. 1885 Cheshire Gloss., Traunce, a tedious journey. ‘He led me a fine traunce’. |
▪ IV. † trance, n.4 Obs.
[a. Sp. trance, formerly tranze danger (see trance n.1), the original word in all three quots.]
Danger, peril.
| 1588 Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 356 They were themselues in the same trance and perill [en el mismo tranze y peligro], and as nigh their death. Ibid. 378 A very good warning vnto all..to flie from putting themselues into the like trance. 1612 Shelton Quix. i. viii. (1619) 58 This thy Knight, who..finds himselfe in this dangerous trance [en este riguroso trance]. |
▪ V. trance, v.1
(trɑːns, -æ-)
Forms: see trance n.1
[In sense 1 a. OF. transir to pass away, to die: see trance n.1; in sense 2 f. trance n.1]
† 1. intr. a. To ‘pass away’, to die. b. To swoon, faint. c. To be in extreme dread, doubt, or suspense. (In some early quotations these senses are difficult to distinguish.) Obs.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 8158 Þai salle seme, whether þai lyg or stand, Als men in transyng, ay deghand. a 1350 Assumpt. Mary 325 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 116 Þan scho transed þare als fast, And þe saul fra þe body past. 14.. Tundale's Vis. 41 As he yn a transynge lay, Hys sowle was in a dredefull way. 1530 Palsgr. 761/2, I trawnce, I fall in a traunce or swounyng, je me transis... I feare me..he wyll dye, for he traunseth often, je men doute,..quil mourra, car il se transit souuent. c 1600 J. Burel Pilgr. in Watson Coll. II. 48 Perplexit and vexit Betwixt houp and dispair, Quhyls transing, quhyls pansing, How till eschew the snair. 1632 Lithgow Trav. i. 5, I trancing flye, I fall, I houering scale. |
2. trans. To throw into a trance or a similar state; † to stupefy; to entrance, enrapture. Chiefly poet.
| 1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat., Defiance to Envie 33 And trance herself in that sweete extasey. a 1619 Fletcher, etc. Q. Corinth ii. iii, Why, where am I? How am I traunc'd and moap'd? i' th street—Heaven bless me. 1800 Moore Anacreon xvii, Mingle in his jetty glances Power that awes, and love that trances. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam v. xvii, I trod as one tranced in some rapturous vision. 1855 Tennyson Maud ii. iv. ii, When I was wont to meet her In the silent woody places..We stood tranced in long embraces. |
| fig. 1830 Tennyson Mariana ii, When thickest dark did trance the sky. 1865 J. Thomson Sunday up the River iv. iii, What Sabbath peace doth trance the air! 1876 D. Stevenson in Gd. Words 687 The world was tranced into a slumberous hush. |
Hence ˈtrancing vbl. n. and ppl. a., entrancing.
| 1340, 14.. [see sense 1]. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh v. 512 That caressing colour and trancing tone Whereby you're swept away and melted in The sensual element. 1867 F. W. H. Myers St. Paul 52 God with sweet strength, with terror and with trancing Spake in the purple mystery of dawn. 1873 E. Brennan Witch of Nemi, etc. 146 Let darkness make complete its trancing joy. |
▪ VI. trance, v.2 Obs. exc. dial.
(trɑːns, -æ-)
Forms: 4–9 traunce, 6– trance (also dial. 9 trawnce).
[Origin and history obscure: see also trounce. (The first quot. is also doubtful in form and sense.)]
intr. To move about actively or briskly; to prance or skip; in later use applied ironically to moving over the ground with effort or speed; implying more rapidity than tramp.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 641 (690) There was no more to speken [v. rr. skipen, schepe] nor to traunce [MS. Harl. 3943 taunce]. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 72 He [Achelons] torneth him into a Bole..The Ground he sporneth and he tranceth, Hise large hornes he avanceth. a 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus i. 192 The younkeir moir wantounlie did trance. a 1625 Fletcher, etc. Fair Maid Inn v. i, Traunce the world over You shall never purse up so much gold as when you were in England. 1867 E. Waugh Factory Folk xxii. 195 Thae'rt noan fit to trawnce up an' deawn o' this shap. |