Wordwyrt

trespass

/tˈɹesˌpæs/TREH-spas
/tˈɹɛsˌpæs/TREH-spas

Meaningacross

Common meaning: enter land without permission

‘across’ + ‘a step, a pace’ → trespass

Journey through time

  • tres — Latin trans- “across” (path traced)
  • pass — Latin passus “a step, a pace” (path traced)

Parts join in Latin as trans.

  1. Latintrans- + passus‘across + a step, a pace’source
  2. Latintrans‘across’source
  3. Old Frenchmeaning shiftsacross → a crimetrespas‘a crime’source
  4. Englishmeaning shiftsa crime → enter land without permissiontrespass‘enter land without permission’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Built on Latin trans, which Skeat analyses as trans- ‘across’ + passus ‘a step, a pace’.

Roots

  • passus Latin “a step, a pace”
  • trans Latin “across”

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