Etymograph

English

transition

Transition comes from Middle French transition, from Latin trānsitiō ‘passage’, from trāns + itiō ‘a going’, from eō ‘to go’, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁ey-1‘to go’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁éyti1‘to go’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*eō1‘to go’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEeō2‘go’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEitiō3‘a going’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtrānsitiō3‘passage, transition’
  7. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600transition3‘transition’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1918transition3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin eo
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin itio
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English transition
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1918, William Babington Maxwell, Indianapolis: “All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill.[…]Never before had…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁ey-Wiktionary, Latin eo‘to go’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁éytiWiktionary, Latin eo‘to go’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*eōWiktionary, Latin eo‘to go’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEeōWiktionary, Latin itio‘go’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEitiōWiktionary, English transition‘a going’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtrānsitiōWiktionary, English transition‘passage, transition’
  7. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600transitionWiktionary, English transition‘transition’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1918transitionWiktionary, English transition. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1918, William Babington Maxwell, Indianapolis: “All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill.[…]Never before had…”

Equivalent to transit + -ion

Latin transire ‘to go across, pass in, pass through’

English transit

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- ‘to go’

eid, itinerary, iter, 24 more

through Proto-Indo-European *h₁éyti ‘to go, to be going’

ion, isthmus, cation, anionic, 19 more

through Proto-Italic *eō ‘to go’

initiative, initiate, initiation, initiator, 4 more

through Latin eō ‘go, proceed’

issue, initial, exit, ambient, ambitious, ambition, obituary, eyre, trance, ambiance, ambit, obit, praetor, 27 more

through Latin itiō ‘a going, walking, travelling’

sedition, seditious

Today it means

noun The process of change from one form, state, style or place to another.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “transition”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin eo, Latin itio. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- / transition

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