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?
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.
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.
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.
Well, that’s different. [Emily Litella]Never mind.[/Emily Litella]
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:
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”.
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.
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 
Actually, I meant “genteel”.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
[ul]
[li]That you bought the farm (or bought it),[/li][li]That you are taking a dirt nap…?[/li][/ul]
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.
I think I’ll stick with “Gorn to join the choir invisible”.
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.”
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.”
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”)
I hear that when Colonel Sanders died, they had a “kick the bucket” sale.