English Explanatory Dictionary

over the transom

English dictionary entry

Meanings

prep_phrase
  1. Of a work submitted for publication, unsolicited.
  2. Meeting a deadline by delivery after the day of the deadline but before opening of business the following business day.

Word forms

over the transom

Etymology

A transom is a lintel or crosspiece over a door; likely an alteration of Latin trānstrum (“crossbeam”). Refers to the idea of a writer tossing a manuscript through the open window over the door of the publisher's office. Alternatively, a "transom" is the nautical term for the back of a small boat. Something which "came in over the transom" would have suddenly (and presumably, surprisingly) entered through the "back door" of the craft, metaphorically.

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