different between traverse vs travail

English

Etymology

From Middle English traversen, from Old French traverser, from Latin trans (“across”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of Latin vertere (“to turn”).

Pronunciation

All parts of speech:

• (General American) IPA^(key): /t???v?s/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /t???v??s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)s
• Hyphenation: tra?verse

Alternative noun pronunciation:

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?t?æv?s/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t?æv?s/
• Hyphenation: trav?erse

Noun

traverse (plural traverses)

1. (climbing) A route used in mountaineering, specifically rock climbing, in which the descent occurs by a different route than the ascent.
2. (surveying) A series of points, with angles and distances measured between, traveled around a subject, usually for use as "control" i.e. angular reference system for later surveying work.
3. (obsolete) A screen or partition.
   • 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Court:

     Than sholde ye see there pressynge in a pace / Of one and other that wolde this lady see, / Whiche sat behynde a traves of sylke fyne, / Of golde of tessew the fynest that myghte be […]

   • 1613, Francis Beaumont, The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn

     At the entrance of the king, / The first traverse was drawn.

4. Something that thwarts or obstructs.

   He will succeed, as long as there are no unlucky traverses not under his control.

5. (architecture) A gallery or loft of communication from side to side of a church or other large building.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gwilt to this entry?)

6. (law) A formal denial of some matter of fact alleged by the opposite party in any stage of the pleadings. The technical words introducing a traverse are absque hoc ("without this", i.e. without what follows).
7. (nautical) The zigzag course or courses made by a ship in passing from one place to another; a compound course.
8. (geometry) A line lying across a figure or other lines; a transversal.
9. (military) In trench warfare, a defensive trench built to prevent enfilade.
   • 1994, Stephen R. Wise, Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863 (page 160)

     At night, when the Federal guns slowed their fire, the men created new traverses and bombproofs.

10. (obsolete) A traverse board.
    • 1789, Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, vol. I, ch. 7:

      The whole care of the vessel rested, therefore, upon me, and I was obliged to direct her by my former experience, not being able to work a traverse.

Related terms

• Grand Traverse County
• traversal
• Traverse City
• Traverse County
• traversive
• travis

Translations

Verb

traverse (third-person singular simple present traverses, present participle traversing, simple past and past participle traversed)

1. (transitive) To travel across, often under difficult conditions.

   He will have to traverse the mountain to get to the other side.
2. (transitive, computing) To visit all parts of; to explore thoroughly.

   to traverse all nodes in a network

3. To lay in a cross direction; to cross.
   • 1695, John Dryden (translator), Observations on the Art of Painting by Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy

     The parts should be often traversed, or crossed, by the flowing of the folds.

4. (artillery) To rotate a gun around a vertical axis to bear upon a military target.

   to traverse a cannon

5. (climbing), To climb or descend a steep hill at a wide angle (relative to the slope).
6. (engineering, skiing) To (make a cutting, an incline) across the gradients of a sloped face at safe rate.

   the road traversed the face of the ridge as the right-of-way climbed the mountain

   The last run, weary, I traversed the descents in no hurry to reach the lodge.

7. To act against; to thwart or obstruct.
   • 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, II:

     The well-meaning priest suffered him to deceive himself, fully determined to traverse his views, instead of seconding them.
8. To pass over and view; to survey carefully.
   • 1675, Robert South, Of the odious Sin of Ingratitude (A Sermon preached at Christ-Church, Oxon, October 17, 1675)

     My purpose is to […] traverse the nature, principles, and properties of this detestable vice — ingratitude.

9. (carpentry) To plane in a direction across the grain of the wood.

   to traverse a board

10. (law) To deny formally.
    • 1699, John Dryden, Epistle to John Dryden

      And save the expense of long litigious laws, / Where suits are traversed, and so little won / That he who conquers is but last undone.

11. (intransitive, fencing) To use the motions of opposition or counteraction.

Translations

Adverb

traverse (comparative more traverse, superlative most traverse)

1. athwart; across; crosswise

Adjective

traverse (comparative more traverse, superlative most traverse)

1. Lying across; being in a direction across something else.

   paths cut with traverse trenches

   • 1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture

     Oak […] being strong in all positions, may be better trusted in cross and traverse work.

   • 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward VI

     the ridges of the fallow field lay trauerse

Derived terms

• traverse drill

Anagrams

• averters

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?a.v??s/
• IPA^(key): /t?a.v??s/

Etymology 1

From Vulgar Latin traversa, feminine of traversus.

Noun

traverse f (plural traverses)

1. crossing
2. (literary) obstacle, hurdle
3. (rail transport) sleeper (UK), tie (US)

Etymology 2

Inflected forms.

Verb

traverse

1. inflection of traverser:
   1. first-person and third-person singular present indicative
   2. first-person and third-person singular present subjunctive
   3. second-person singular imperative

Anagrams

• réservât, reversât

Further reading

• “traverse” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Adjective

traverse

1. feminine plural of traverso

Noun

traverse f

1. plural of traversa

Anagrams

• varreste

English

Alternative forms

• travel, travell (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• enPR: tr?-v?l?, tr?v??l', IPA^(key): /t???ve?l/, /?t?æv?e?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English travail, from Old French travail (“suffering, torment”), from Vulgar Latin *tripali? (“to torture; suffer, toil”) from Late Latin trep?lium (“an instrument of torture”) from Latin trip?lis (“held up by three stakes”) from Proto-Italic *tr?s + *p?kslos from Proto-Indo-European *peh??-.

Noun

travail (plural travails or travaux)

1. (literary) Arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship. [from 13th c.]
   • 1597, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Book V, §21:

     But as every thing of price, so this doth require travail.

   • 1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber 2007, p. 38:

     He had thought of making a destiny for himself, through laborious and untiring travail.
2. Specifically, the labor of childbirth. [from 13th c.]
   • 1607–08, William Shakespeare (?), Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act III, Chorus:

     The lady shrieks and, well-a-near,

     Does fall in travail with her fear.

   • 1611, King James Version, Genesis 38:27–28:

     And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb. And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first,

3. (obsolete, countable) An act of working; labor (US), labour (British). [14th-18th c.]
4. (obsolete) The eclipse of a celestial object. [17th c.]
5. Obsolete form of travel.
6. Alternative form of travois (“a kind of sled”)

Related terms

Translations

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “travail”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “travail”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Etymology 2

From Middle English travailen, from Old French travaillier, from the noun (see above).

Verb

travail (third-person singular simple present travails, present participle travailing, simple past and past participle travailed)

1. To toil.
   • 1552, Hugh Latimer, "Fourth Sermon on the Lord's Prayer, Preached before Lady Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk":

     [A]ll slothful persons, which will not travail for their livings, do the will of the devil.

   • 1611, King James Version, Job 15:20:

     The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
2. To go through the labor of childbirth.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, John XIV:

     A woman when she traveyleth hath sorowe, be cause her houre is come: but as sone as she is delivered off her chylde she remembreth no moare her anguysshe, for ioye that a man is borne in to the worlde.

Translations

Further reading

• Tripalium on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From Middle French travail, from the singular form from Old French travail from Vulgar Latin *tripali? (“to torture; suffer, toil”) from Late Latin trep?lium (“an instrument of torture”) from Latin trip?lis (“held up by three stakes”). Compare Occitan trabalh, Catalan treball, English travail, Italian travaglio, Portuguese trabalho, Spanish trabajo.

The plural from Old French travauz, from travailz with l-vocalization before a consonant. The final -auz was later spelled -aux, and the sequence -au-, which once represented a diphthong, now represents an o sound.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?a.vaj/
• Rhymes: -aj
• Homophones: travaille, travaillent, travailles

Noun

travail m (plural travaux)

1. work; labor
2. job
3. workplace

Synonyms

• boulot, taf, turbin, job

Derived terms

Further reading

• “travail” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French travail.

Noun

travail m (plural travails)

1. suffering; pain

Descendants

• French: travail

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (travail, supplement)

Old French

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *tripali? (“to torture; suffer, toil”) from Late Latin trep?lium (“an instrument of torture”) from Latin trip?lis (“held up by three stakes”). Compare Occitan trabalh, Catalan treball, Italian travaglio, Portuguese trabalho, Spanish trabajo.

Noun

travail m (oblique plural travauz or travailz, nominative singular travauz or travailz, nominative plural travail)

1. suffering, torment

Descendants

• ? English: travail
• Middle French: travail
  • French: travail
• Norman: travas