# Has “passed away” always been a straight euphemism for “died”? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 5, 2019, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306 "2019-10-05T06:02:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2019, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/21 "2019-10-05T19:54:32Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > I’ve noticed ‘passed away’ being used more frequently by the police when announcing deaths to the public. > > Used to be you’d hear, “seven people were killed in the crash”. Now, it’s more like “seven people passed away” in it. Or, after a shooting, “seven people passed away after the sniper opened fire”. I find this newer use almost jarring since, as the OP said, ‘passed away’ used to imply peacefully. > > Maybe it’s just a recent thing in Ontario. Could be unique to Ontario. I’m not aware of hearing any ‘Official’ announcements like the examples given. I have heard and read ‘passed away’ for as long as I can remember, but have noticed the use of ‘passed’ has been on the increase. Passed what? Go? Gas? cars in the slow lane? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2019, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/22 "2019-10-05T22:02:34Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > So what’s the Jewish way? Well, I think he meant gentle, not gentile. But saying ‘passed’ is really a way to stick a religious theistic claim into the conversion – it says that the person has died, and then asserts they have passed on into some heaven/hell afterlife. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2019, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/23 "2019-10-05T22:25:56Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > This was my understanding, too. > > Yes. I’m not quite as old as Qsdgop, but I have always interpreted it as a euphemism for any sort of death, peaceful, violent, whatever. I think it’s meant to reference the moment the soul passes out of the body. Interesting. I was raised completely without religion, so that sense of the word would never have occurred to me when I was learning the English language. > [@ALOHA\_HATER](#): > > What? Hard no on the last one, from this native English speaker. “Passed away" can be used for a violent death, but not if the violent circumstances are said in the same breath. > > “Morgan passed away” (from a gunshot wound, but I don’t want to talk about it) = ok > “Morgan got shot and immediately passed away” = not idiomatic > “Morgan got shot and one week later passed away in their hospital bed” = ok Aha, the plot thickens. Until I read this, I was ready to go with my having misinterpreted the meaning all along. But now I think the question still has legs. What I’m wondering now is if since it’s something people don’t necessarily want to talk about in great detail and there is no conflict in most cases, whether the phrase has undergone meaning creep over time. I guess it’s even slightly possible that it originally meant any kind of death because of the religious idea but that in a more secular society some people have begun to interpret it the way you and I do. But that seems less likely, because I just don’t remember it ever conflicting with my sense of the usage until more recent years. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2019, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/24 "2019-10-05T22:39:13Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > Well, I think he meant gentle, not gentile. Well, that’s different. [Emily Litella]Never mind.[/Emily Litella] ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/25 "2019-10-06T03:39:52Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > To me is has always been a euphemism for _any_ type of croaking. Is “croaking” a euphemism for “kicking the bucket”? I only ask, ‘cuz I wonder what they might say about me when I cash in my chips. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/26 "2019-10-06T04:21:13Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > Is “croaking” a euphemism for “kicking the bucket”? > > I only ask, ‘cuz I wonder what they might say about me when I cash in my chips. Well, in this vein, the definitive reference on death euphemisms has this to add: > [@](#): > > ‘E’s not pinin’! 'E’s passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E’s expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed 'im to the perch 'e’d be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E’s off the twig! 'E’s kicked the bucket, 'e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!! So, “passed on” rather than passed away. I’m with others on this. “Passed away” or “passed on” was always an expression with religious overtones used to soft pedal someone’s death, and one used to imply peaceable going. I find the current use of “passed” jarring to say the least. Here official pronouncements (ie from the police) tend to use the word “deceased”, which is also jarring. People work hard to avoid the words “died” and “killed”. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Lebodnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/fbc32d/32.png) [@Mr.Lebodnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Lebodnik)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/27 "2019-10-06T04:26:55Z")
I don’t know about this “passed away” or “passed”. When I grew up it was always “died”. I wonder if people are just sort of uncomfortable to say died, dead or death. Just scared to be reminded of the inevitable. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/28 "2019-10-06T04:29:52Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > Off topic: How can you tell that from the Google ngram statistics? Is there a way to exclude certain texts (like, say, the Bible) from the corpus? Sorry, I’m kinda stupid about these things! 🙂 I just go to the links down the bottom which are ordered by chunks of time, and start browsing around. You can get a vague sense, with a little sampling, of how words are evolving in meaning over the decades. It’s not particularly scientific 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/29 "2019-10-06T13:02:55Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > Well, I think he meant gentle, not gentile. Actually, I meant “genteel”. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/30 "2019-10-06T13:39:29Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > My understanding (and of course YMMV) is that the person PASSED, and then sometimes the add-ons were ‘away peacefully’, ‘tragically’ and ‘unexpectedly’ to denote old age/chronic illness, an accident (or suicide) and a sudden illness respectively. > [@Aspidistra](#): > > My understanding was the complete opposite - once “passed away” had been firmly fixed as a euphemism for “died”, people started abbreviating it to “passed”, because the “away” was understood. > > Looking at the [ngram viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=passed+away&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpassed%20away%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cpassed%20away%3B%2Cc0) results for the phrase is interesting. You do see individual people “passing away” as early as the nineteenth century, but that big bulge in the middle is mostly not that - it’s a whole heap of Bible references (“heaven and earth had passed away”), plus “former generations” (rather than individuals) passing away, plus even quite mundane things like a person travelling to another town “passing away” by going down the road. I’m with Aspidistra here. The original euphemism for death is that a person “passed away.” But my feeling is that the shortening to “passed” is not so much because the “away” is understood, but because, as euphemisms often do, “passed away” now means “died” so literally that people have become reluctant to say “passed away” for the same reason they’re reluctant to say “died,” so now “passed” is a euphemism for “passed away,” which was a euphemism for “died.” ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/31 "2019-10-06T13:44:53Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I’m with Aspidistra here. The original euphemism for death is that a person “passed away.” But my feeling is that the shortening to “passed” is not so much because the “away” is understood, but because, as euphemisms often do, “passed away” now means “died” so literally that people have become reluctant to say “passed away” for the same reason they’re reluctant to say “died,” so now “passed” is a euphemism for “passed away,” which was a euphemism for “died.” That is my guess, as well. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/32 "2019-10-06T14:35:16Z")
I am a genteel (not gentile :)) Jewish woman in my 50’s, and passed away has always been my preferred term to use for death, because I find it less harsh than saying “died”. I have always used it for all deaths, whether peaceful or violent, with the idea being that however the person died, their soul or essence has now left their body and “passed away”. I also prefer to say that I’m going to use the restroom. Some of this I think came from my mother, who used a lot of euphemisms. Now that I’m an adult, I’ve realized that she did this around children, and that her normal language is a lot more colorful, to the point that it sometimes shocks me. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2019, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/33 "2019-10-07T00:57:33Z")
The OED has cites for “pass away”: meaning to disappear; to dissolve; to cease to exist going back to about 1325, but they refer to things, not people. From about 1400 there are cites for a sense referring to death, but initially they refer to the soul passing away, life passing away, etc. People don’t start to pass away until about 1500. “Pass over”, meaning to die, goes back to the 17th century. The OED’s first cite is the use of the term by Bunyan in _Pilgrim’s Progress_, and he employs it in a metaphor in which death is compared to passing over a river. It’s a usage that became popular in American English in the late nineteenth century, under the influence of spiritualism. The earliest cite for “pass”, meaing to die, is from 1340, and there are cites from Shakespeare and Tennyson, but it’s noted as “now chiefly _North American_ and in _Spiritualism_”. ---
**Author:** ![ALOHA\_HATER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@ALOHA\_HATER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ALOHA_HATER)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/34 "2019-10-26T04:40:04Z")
I think this thread shouldn’t close without mentioning the euphemism treadmill, which is the term Wikipedia uses. It’s likely that the d-word will continue to decrease in frequency of use, perhaps “to pass” will broaden in meaning, then “pass” will provoke more hurtful emotional resonance in the heart of the person who hears it. Then people will begin to use other words for dying: “He skidaddled,” “She dipped out,” “They got tired of it,” “They ain’t here.” Death, of course, is riper than any other topic to be euphemised, and creativity in its description is an immortal guarantee. ---
**Author:** ![Crossbreed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@Crossbreed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crossbreed)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/35 "2019-10-26T06:15:30Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > Is “croaking” a euphemism for “kicking the bucket”? > > I only ask, ‘cuz I wonder what they might say about me when I cash in my chips. [ul] [li]That you bought the farm (or bought it),[/li][li]That you are taking a dirt nap…?[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/36 "2019-10-26T06:44:28Z")
In my mind, “passed away” implies a peaceful transition from life to death while reposing in a comfortable bed, possibly surrounded by your loved ones. Not while being riddled with bullets or being rendered into hamburger by a rampaging bull. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/37 "2019-10-26T06:47:12Z")
I think I’ll stick with “Gorn to join the choir invisible”. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/38 "2019-10-26T13:11:46Z")
I attended a Catholic high school from 1982 to 1986 and took a class called “Death and Dying.” I distinctly remember the teacher telling us to never use the term “passed away” when someone died. He said to simply say they died. I’m not sure how valid his statement was, but to this day I always say “died.” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/39 "2019-10-26T14:23:42Z")
I once told a co-worker whose first language was not English “I have to get a drink of water or I’ll pass out.” She replied “If you pass away I’m sending you home.” I just looked at her and finally said “I said pass OUT, not pass AWAY.” And told all my other co-workers about it as “the funny of the day.” ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306/40 "2019-10-26T15:05:14Z")
I always understood it (no cite) that the original expression was “passed on” shorthand for gone to the afterlife, as in “He has passed on to the next world” I.e. gone to heaven (we hope). Then they started using Passed and passed away as alternative ways to say “died”. I suppose it takes too long to say: (Note “passed on”) > [@](#): > > Mr. Praline: ‘E’s not pinin’! 'E’s passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E’s expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed 'im to the perch 'e’d be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E’s off the twig! 'E’s kicked the bucket, 'e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!! I hear that when Colonel Sanders died, they had a “kick the bucket” sale. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-passed-away-always-been-a-straight-euphemism-for-died/841306.md?page=3)