trance
Meaning
a state in which someone seems to be asleep but is aware of what is said to them, for example if they are hypnotized
a state in which you are thinking so much about something that you do not notice what is happening around you
Usage
the hypnotist put her into a deep trance.
he stared out the window, lost in a trance.
the repetitive music induced a trance-like state in the dancers.
Etymology
the word 'trance' entered english in the late 14th century from the old french 'transe', meaning 'fear of coming evil' or 'passage from life to death'. this old french term derived from the latin 'transīre', meaning 'to cross over' or 'to pass', composed of 'trans-' (across, beyond) and 'īre' (to go). the semantic evolution is clear: from the literal idea of 'passing over' (as in death), the meaning softened to describe a 'faint' or 'swoon', and eventually settled on its modern sense of a hypnotic or abstracted state, a 'passing' out of normal consciousness.
Analysis
the word 'trance' functions as a single, unsegmentable morpheme in modern english.