transigent

English

Etymology

Back-formation from intransigent.

Adjective

transigent (comparative more transigent, superlative most transigent)

1. (uncommon) Willing to compromise.
   • 1941, Arthur Kissam Train, The Story of Everyday Things, Harper & Brothers, page 390:

     But in the second half scientists will undoubtedly make progress in synthesizing the hormones, the mysterious secretions of the ductless glands which regulate the make-up of our personalities, determining whether we are to be big or little, energetic or lazy, virile or effeminate, aggressive or transigent, high-strung or lethargic.

   • 1966 April 22, “Unaccustomed Calm”, in Time‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 August 2013:

     Armed Forces Minister General Enrique Prez y Prez, under whom the army has become more transigent, promised last week that the armed forces "will respect the popular will."

   • 1972, Robert Brent Toplin, The Abolition of Slavery in Brazil, Atheneum, →ISBN, page 85:

     As the editors of the Gazeta da Tarde explained their position, “Intransigent in principles, we are, however, transigent in facts.”

   • 1977, Marco Caliaro, Mario Francesconi, John Baptist Scalabrini: Apostle to Emigrants, →ISBN, page 11:

     The internal contradictions resulting from the lack of distinction between the religious and the socio-political spheres of action had been perceived by the more intelligent and best intentioned, and this accounted for the perplexities of Toniolo and many others, both intransigent and transigent.

   • 1985, R. P. Blackmur, “The Jew in Search of a Son”, in Harold Bloom, editor, The Art of the Critic, New York: Chelsea House Publishers, →ISBN, page 334:

     He is Everyman in exile, the exile in every man. A transigent man, easy, warm, thinking, he makes up in little acts of imagination for frustrations not of his making.

   • 2000 February 18, Alessandra Stanley, “Honoring a Heretic Whom Vatican ‘Regrets’ Burning”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 November 2024:

     “I think Bruno mainly appeals to a small minority, Italians who are at the margins of society,” said Paolo Fabbri, a professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna. “Ours is such a transigent culture, we are known for ‘transformismo,’ going along to get along.”

   • 2007 [1989], “Is Dr King on board?”, in Vinay Samuel, Albrecht Hauser, editors, Proclaiming Christ in Christ's Way, page 201:

     By year's end, he was to admit that Chicago had proved to be more difficult than any place he had been; more transigent, less amenable to reason, more violent.

   • 2013 January 28, Ross Douthat, “Immigration and Republican Self-Interest”, in The New York Times‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 8 July 2025:

     Here is Ezra Klein, explaining why Republican are suddenly looking more, shall we say, transigent on immigration than they’ve been on taxes: […]

Synonyms

• (willing to compromise): compromising

Noun

transigent (plural transigents)

1. (uncommon) A person who is willing to compromise or to be brought to terms.
   • 2009, Giuseppe Maria Finaldi, Italian National Identity in the Scramble for Africa: Italy's African Wars […] , →ISBN, page 214:

     As in other areas, in this field the traditional distinction between transigents and intransigents was clearly at work.

Anagrams

• astringent, integrants, natterings

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin transigens.

Adjective

transigent m or f (masculine and feminine plural transigents)

1. accommodating, tolerant

Derived terms

• intransigent
• transigència

Related terms

• transigir

Further reading

• “transigent”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026

French

Verb

transigent

1. third-person plural present indicative/subjunctive of transiger

Latin

Verb

trānsigent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of trānsigō

Romanian

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin transigens, or borrowed from French transigeant.

Adjective

transigent m or n (feminine singular transigentă, masculine plural transigenți, feminine/neuter plural transigente)

1. transigent

Declension

Declension of transigent

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	transigent		transigentă	transigenți	transigente
	definite	transigentul		transigenta	transigenții	transigentele
genitive- dative	indefinite	transigent		transigente	transigenți	transigente
	definite	transigentului		transigentei	transigenților	transigentelor