c.1300, from Old French transmigracion "exile, diaspora" (13c.) and directly from Late Latin transmigrationem (nominative transmigratio) "change of country," noun of action from past participle stem of Latin transmigrare "to wander, move, to migrate," from trans- "over" (see trans-) + migrare "to migrate" (see migration). Originally literal, in reference to the removal of the Jews into the Babylonian captivity; general sense of "passage from one place to another" is attested from late 14c.; sense of "passage of the soul after death into another body" first recorded 1590s.