Transi

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An artistic depiction of a human corpse or skeleton, often used in medieval and Renaissance art to remind viewers of human mortality
2. A skeletal figure or image of a dead body shown in artwork as a symbol of death and the transience of life
3. A portrayal of a cadaver or bones in visual art, particularly from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, emphasizing the inevitability of death

Etymology: Late medieval Europe produced tomb sculptures showing a corpse, often shrouded and shown in advanced decay, beneath the effigy of the person in life. Scholars and art historians call these "transi" tombs, after the French word itself. The term is the past participle of "transir," a verb meaning to pass away or die. That verb comes from Latin "transire," "to go across" or "to pass over," so a "transi" is someone who has crossed over to death. In modern French, "transir" also means to be chilled to the bone or numbed by cold, a sense that developed separately within the same verb, so the French word can carry both ideas at once. English adopted the term from French as a specialist art-historical label rather than as an everyday word, so it appears mainly in writing about sculpture and tomb design.