transversal, a. and n.
(trɑːnsˈvɜːsəl, træns-, -nz-)
[ad. med.L. transversāl-is (a 1255 Albertus Magnus Animal. 13. 2. 1): see transverse and -al1. Cf. F. transversal (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
A. adj.
1. Lying or passing across; = transverse a. 1.
| c 1440 tr. Pallad. on Husb. vi. 179 A double cours of boording..Oon transuersal, another cours directe. 1527 R. Thorne in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 253 One of the transuersall lines. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. E iv, Openynge with two transuersall muscles. 1644 Digby Nat. Bodies xxvi. §5. 236 The hart hath in the ventricles of it, three sortes of fibers:..the third, are transuersall or thwart ones. 1755 Phil. Trans. XLIX. 119 Flames, rays, and fiery corruscations, direct and transversal. 1831 Faraday Exp. Res. xlvi. 358 The direct vibration of the luminous body may communicate transversal vibration..to the molecules of the ether. 1908 Contemp. Rev. Mar. 369 A scheme for the construction of a transversal line which would link Odessa and Varna. |
† 2. Genealogy. Collateral: = transverse a. 2.
| [a 1308 Duns Scotus Sent. 4. 40. 6 Transversalis.] 1594 Parsons Confer. Success. ii. viii. 184 He was of the right discendant lyne of K. John, and the Cardinal was but of the collateral or transuersal lyne. 1907 [? implied in transversally]. |
3. Conch. = transverse a. 1 c. (So in F.)
| 1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 710/2 All [shells] that are of greater breadth than length are named transversal. |
B. n.
† 1. Something transversal or lying athwart, a transverse line; fig. a deviation, digression. Obs. rare.
| 1597 Lowe Chirurg. (1634) 256 Three kinds of fibres which are Rights, Obliques, and Transversals. 1620 Shelton Quix. (1746) III. xxvi. 183 On with your Story in a direct Line, and fall not into your Crooks and your Transversals. |
2. Geom. A line intersecting two or more lines, or a system of lines.
| 1881 Casey Sequel to Euclid 68 If two parallel lines be intersected by three concurrent transversals, the segments intercepted by the transversals on the parallels are proportional. 1885 Eagles Constr. Geom. Plane Curves 15 Every transversal of a harmonic pencil is divided harmonically in the points in which it intersects the lines of the pencil. 1902 Townsend tr. Hilbert's Foundat. Geometry 63 A segment [of a line] joining a vertex of a triangle with a point of the opposite side is called a transversal. A transversal divides the given triangle into two others having the same altitude and having bases which lie in the same straight line. |
b. Optics. The line in which the plane of polarization of a beam of light intersects the wave-front; the transverse plane.
| 1909 in Cent. Dict. Suppl. |
3. Roulette. A bet placed at the end of any three numbers taking them horizontally. Cf. transverse B. 1 h. Also in Fr. form transversale.
transversale six, a bet placed on the line, taking in the three numbers above and the three below.
| 1895 G. Meredith Amazing Marriage ix, He stated that the number of 17 had won before. Abrane tried the transversal enclosing this favoured number. |