Transjordan

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The historical name used for the territory that is now the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, particularly during the period of British mandate administration in the early twentieth century
2. The region east of the Jordan River known as the British Mandate territory before it became the independent nation of Jordan in 1946
3. The former designation for the land between the Jordan River and the Arabian Desert that was established as a separate emirate under British administration and later gained independence as Jordan

Etymology: Transjordan is a proper noun, a place name formed by joining the Latin prefix "trans-", meaning "across" or "beyond", to Jordan, the river. The name thus means "across the Jordan," describing a region lying on the far (eastern) bank of the river as seen from the perspective of those in the west, where the Jordan's valley marks a natural boundary. The Jordan itself takes its name from the Hebrew "yarden," a word derived from a root meaning "to descend," reflecting the river's steep fall from the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea. Because the river was such a prominent landmark in the region's geography, naming the land beyond it by simple reference to the river was a natural way of identifying territory on its far side. The compound itself is a straightforward descriptive construction, so the most useful way to read it is as a geographic directional label rather than a term with a deeper semantic history of its own.