An act of breaking or violating a law, rule, or moral principle; an offense or wrongdoing.
From Latin 'transgressio' meaning 'a stepping across', composed of 'trans-' (across) and 'gradi' (to step). The word originally meant literally stepping across a boundary, which developed into the metaphorical sense of crossing moral or legal boundaries.
Transgression literally means 'stepping across' a line - imagine moral rules as invisible boundaries on the ground, and breaking them is like stepping over these lines! This spatial metaphor helps explain why we say someone has 'crossed the line' or 'overstepped boundaries' when they misbehave.
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