Transmigure

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To move from one body into a different one, as a soul is believed to do after death in certain belief systems
2. Describing the passage of a soul into another physical form or living being after the death of the first
3. Having a spirit or life essence pass across into a new bodily existence, a notion found in reincarnation beliefs

Etymology: "Transmigure" is formed in English from the prefix "trans-", meaning "across" or "beyond," and "migrate," from Latin "migrare," "to move from one place to another." Its core sense is to change form or state, or to pass into another body, condition, or existence. The verb is recorded from the 1500s, and it entered English in an earlier form tied to the idea of the soul passing from one body into another, a notion long associated with the doctrine of metempsychosis. The sense of change of form is the one that has spread. Writers have used "transmigure" in the sense of a thing being transformed into something substantially different, often with a religious or mystical tinge, as when a substance or spirit is said to pass into a new state. Because the word is less common than "transform" or "transfigure," it tends to carry a sense of the process being total rather than superficial.

Synonyms: transmigrate, reincarnate, transform