English
transmute
Transmute comes from Latin transmutō ‘to change, shift, transform, transmute’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- ‘to exchange’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meyth₂-1‘to exchange’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmūtō2‘change, alter’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtransmutō3as trānsmūtāre‘to change, shift, transform, transmute’
- Englishearliest quotation 1653transmute3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin muto
- 2 Wiktionary, Latin transmuto
- 3 Wiktionary, English transmute
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1653, John Bulwer, The Artificial Changling […]: “But others declare that no Creature can be made…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meyth₂-Wiktionary, Latin muto‘to exchange’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmūtōWiktionary, Latin transmuto‘change, alter’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtransmutōWiktionary, English transmuteas trānsmūtāre‘to change, shift, transform, transmute’
- Englishearliest quotation 1653transmuteWiktionary, English transmute. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1653, John Bulwer, The Artificial Changling […]: “But others declare that no Creature can be made…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- ‘to exchange’
miss, message, mad, mess, commit, premise, madden, intermittent, omit, misnomer, commutation, 20 more
through Latin mūtō ‘change, alter’
mutation, mutant, commute, immutable, molt, moult, commutative, mutate, mutable, 12 more
Today it means
verb To change or convert one thing to another, or from one state or form to another.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “transmute”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin muto, Latin transmuto. 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 *meyth₂- / transmute