Miscellaneous Entries.
transmittal; transmission; *transmittance. “Transmittal” is more physical than “transmission,” just as “admittance” is more physical than “admission.” “Transmittal,” though labeled rare in the Oxford English Dictionary, is common in American English, especially in the phrase “transmittal letter” (= a cover letter accompanying documents or other things being conveyed to another). *”Transmittance” is a needless variant. The commercialese appears on many cover sheets where the simple “fax” would do nicely.
transnational. So spelled.
transparent; translucent. A “transparent” substance allows light to pass through it freely, so that objects beyond it may be seen clearly. On the other hand, a “translucent” substance allows light to pass through it but diffuses it, so that objects beyond it are not clearly visible. Hence ordinary glass is “transparent,” while frosted glass is “translucent.”
transportation; *transportal; *transportment. The first is standard; the second and third are needless variants.
transposition; *transposal. The latter is a needless variant.
transship (= to transfer from one ship or vehicle to another) is so spelled — without a hyphen. The word is sometimes misspelled *”tranship” — e.g.: “Japanese intelligence sources speculated that the shipment may have originated in China and been transhipped [read ‘transshipped’] through the North Korean port of Chongjin by a middleman.” Richard Lloyd Parry, “North Korea: A Nation Exporting Food While Its Children Starve,” Independent, 18 July 1997, at 16.
*Invariably inferior form.
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Quotation of the Day: “We are almost overrun with rhetoricians. Though no small part of the rules which they give, viz. those that concern either the words or the sense, may be very well applied to our ordinary discourse.” Marcus Tullius Cicero, The Offices (Thomas Cockman trans., 1669), in Classics in Composition 22, 28 (Donald E. Hayden ed., 1969).
