Traunce

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic word for a trance, a dreamlike state of deep abstraction ; to pass into such a dazed, senseless condition
2. A dreamy, entranced state of mind, as found in old poetry ; to fall into a rapt, trance-like stupor
3. A dazed, spellbound condition of the senses ; to become lost in a trance or swoon

Etymology: "Traunce" is an obsolete spelling of "trance," and its earliest sense was not a dreamy state but a dread of what was coming. Middle English "traunce" came from Anglo-Norman "transe," meaning fear of coming evil or a passage from life to death. That French-derived word grew from "transir," meaning to be numb with fear, or to die and pass on, and that in turn traces back to Latin "transeo," "to cross over." The sense of crossing over from life into death explains why the word once carried such a grim charge. The word also has a surprising relative. Middle English had a verb "trauncen" or "trancen," which may have meant to move about, to prance, or to trample the ground. That verb is the source of modern English "trounce," which kept the sense of trampling and beating down. The noun was probably formed from the verb, so the sleepy trance and the pounding trounce share a distant ancestry in the idea of movement across or over something.