TRANSACT.
Synonyms:
| accomplish, | carry on, | do, | perform, |
| act, | conduct, | negotiate, | treat. |
There are many acts that one may do, accomplish, or perform unaided; what he transacts is by means of or in association with others; one may do a duty, perform a vow, accomplish a task, but he transacts business, since that always involves the agency of others. To negotiate and to treat are likewise collective acts, but both these words lay stress upon deliberation with adjustment of mutual claims and interests; transact, while it may depend upon previous deliberation, states execution only. Notes, bills of exchange, loans, and treaties are said to be negotiated, the word so used covering not merely the preliminary consideration, but the final settlement. Negotiate has more reference to execution than treat; nations may treat of peace without result, but when a treaty is negotiated, peace is secured; the citizens of the two nations are then free to transact business with one another. Compare [DO].
TRANSACTION.
Synonyms:
| act, | action, | affair, | business, | deed, | doing, | proceeding. |
One's acts or deeds may be exclusively his own; his transactions involve the agency or participation of others. A transaction is something completed; a proceeding is or is viewed as something in progress; but since transaction is often used to include the steps leading to the conclusion, while proceedings may result in action, the dividing line between the two words becomes sometimes quite faint, tho transaction often emphasizes the fact of something done, or brought to a conclusion. Both transactions and proceedings are used of the records of a deliberative body, especially when published; strictly used, the two are distinguished; as, the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London give in full the papers read; the Proceedings of the American Philological Association give in full the business done, with mere abstracts of or extracts from the papers read. Compare [ACT]; [BUSINESS].