transpire

(trăn-spīr')

v., -spired, -spir·ing, -spires.

v.tr.
To give off (vapor containing waste products) through the pores of the skin or the stomata of plant tissue.

v.intr.

1. To become known; come to light.
2. Usage Problem. To come about; happen or occur.
3. To give off vapor containing waste products, as through animal or plant pores.

[French transpirer, from Medieval Latin trānspīrāre : Latin trāns-, trans- + Latin spīrāre, to breathe.]

USAGE NOTE   Transpire has been used since the mid-18th century in the sense "leak out, become publicly known," as in Despite efforts to hush the matter up, it soon transpired that the colonels had met with the rebel leaders. This usage has long been standard. The more common use of transpire to mean "occur" or "happen" has had a more troubled history. Though it dates at least to the beginning of the 19th century, language critics have condemned it for more than 100 years as both pretentious and unetymological. There is some sign that resistance to this sense of transpire is abating, however. In a 1969 survey the usage was acceptable to only 38 percent of the Usage Panel; nearly 20 years later, 58 percent accepted it in the sentence All of these events transpired after last week's announcement. Still, many Panelists who accepted the usage also remarked that it was pretentious or pompous.

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The origin of the word is in the Latin verb spirare 'to breathe', and in its primary physical sense meant 'to give off vapour' or 'to perspire' (a meaning still used in the physical sciences). In the 18th century it developed two abstract meanings, both looked on with suspicion: (1) 'to leak out, to become known', usually with an impersonal it as subject

(It transpired later that the social workers were all under instruction to have identification—R. Black, 1992

The couple, it transpires, have quietly been buying art for a decade—Arts & Book Review, 2007)

, and (2) 'to happen, to occur'

(What actually transpired upon the outbreak of the Civil War is lost in the mists of time—E. G. Holland, 1986

It is imperative now...that Tony Blair comes clean with the British public as to what transpired during the course of those 10 days—Guardian Unlimited, 2005 [Old English (up to 1150)C])

, a sense that probably arose from a misunderstanding of the previous one. In the course of time the first of these meanings has become accepted, but the second, despite its closeness in some contexts, is still widely disfavoured (in the 19th century the American writer Richard Grant White went so far as to describe it as a 'monstrous perversion') and it should not be used except informally.

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verb

1. To be made public: break, come out, get out, out. Informal leak (out). Idioms: come to light. See knowledge/ignorance, show/hide.
2. To take place: befall, betide, come, come about, come off, develop, hap, happen, occur, pass. Idioms: come to pass. See happen.
3. To flow or leak out or emit something slowly: bleed, exude, leach, ooze, percolate, seep, transude, weep. See move/halt, solid/liquid/consistency.

IN BRIEF: Come about, happen, or occur. Also: Pass through the tissue to the surface.

You never know what events are going to transpire to get you home. — Og Mandino

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See words rhyming with "transpire."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Transpire.

Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - afgive i form af damp, udånde, svede
v. intr. - svede, transpirere, fordampe, komme for dagen, sive ud, forlyde

Nederlands (Dutch)
bekend worden, zweten, plaatsvinden

Français (French)
v. tr. - (Bot, Physiol) transpirer
v. intr. - apparaître, se produire, (Bot, Physiol) transpirer

Deutsch (German)
v. - bekannt werden, sich herausstellen, sich ereignen, transpirieren, schwitzen

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - συμβαίνω, επισυμβαίνω, αποπνέω, (μτφ.) έρχομαι στη δημοσιότητα, διαρρέω

Italiano (Italian)
trapelare, emergere

Português (Portuguese)
v. - transpirar, exalar

Русский (Russian)
стать известным, происходить, случаться

Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - transpirar, exhalar, sudar
v. intr. - transpirar, exhalarse, rezumarse, brotar, traslucirse, acaecer, suceder, sudar

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - avdunsta, utdunsta, avsöndra, avge, hända, inträffa, äga rum, försiggå

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
使蒸发, 使排出, 蒸发, 泄露, 发散

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 使蒸發, 使排出
v. intr. - 蒸發, 洩露, 發散

한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - 증발 시키다, 발산 시키다, 배출하다
v. intr. - 증발하다, 드러나다, (비밀이) 새다

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 蒸散する, 漏れる, 起こる

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يرتشح, يعرق‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮הזיע, הפריש, פלט, דיית‬
v. intr. - ‮התגלה, התברר, קרה, התרחש, דלף (מידע)‬

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