transient

1. Passing or disappearing with time; transitory.

   a transient pleasure

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 10”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     this transient world

2. Remaining for only a brief time.

   a transient view of a landscape

   a transient disease

3. (physics) Decaying with time, especially exponentially.
4. (mathematics, stochastic processes, of a state) having a positive probability of being left and never being visited again.
5. Occasional; isolated; one-off
6. Passing through; passing from one person to another.
7. (music) Intermediate.
8. (philosophy) Operating beyond itself; having an external effect.

• (passing) passing, transitory, temporary
• (brief) brief, ephemeral, fleeting, flighty, fugacious

• (passing) permanent
• (brief) permanent, inveterate
• (mathematics) recurrent
• (philosophy) immanent

• French: passager, provisoire, transitoire, temporaire
• German: vergänglich, vorübergehend, temporär, instationär, Übergangs- (prefix), unbeständig, Ausgleichs- (prefix), abklingend
• Italian: transitorio
• Portuguese: transitório
• Russian: преходя́щий
• Spanish: transitorio

• French: bref, éphémère, fugace
• German: kurzzeitig, flüchtig, kurzlebig, passager
• Russian: временный

• German: kurzlebig, flüchtig, zerfallend

• German: transient

• German: gelegentlich, isoliert, einmalig, Augenblicks- (prefix)
• Russian: случа́йный

• German: Durchgangs- (prefix), durchlaufend, Ausgleichs- (prefix), mobil

transient (plural transients)

1. Something which is transient.
2. (physics) A transient phenomenon, especially an electric current; a very brief surge.
3. (acoustics) A relatively loud, non-repeating signal in an audio waveform which occurs very quickly, such as the attack of a snare drum.
4. A person who passes through a place for a short time; a traveller; a migrant worker
   • 1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, Virago Press, paperback edition, page 3

     Then, within the space of a few months, there were more transients than there were locals, and the imbalance seemed morally wrong.

5. An unhoused person

• (4) traveller: itinerant, migrant, traveller
• (5) homeless: homeless

• German: Übergang

• German: Transiente

• German: Einschwingungsvorgang

• French: itinérant
• German: Reisende, Reisender, Durchreisende, Durchreisender
• Spanish: trotamundo, transeúnte

• French: clochard, clodo, sans-abri, SDF
• German: Obdachlose, Obdachloser