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I have lived outside the UK for more than 30 years, and notice that the language changes, of course it does.

Lately Brits have started saying "passed" instead of "died". I find this very strange. OK, people used to say "passed away" when being very sensitive indeed. But "passed" strikes me as affected (and rather ungrammatical).

Now when my father died he did just that, he died. Would Brits find me cruelly insensitive for saying that? Does nobody die any more?

RedSonja
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  • Passed, short passed away. The euphemism is still in place. *Died, Passed Away or Passed* https://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-b-bradshaw/died-passed-away-or-passed_b_6240282.html – user 66974 Feb 13 '18 at 14:06
  • "passed away", and by extension, "passed", is a gentler expression than "died". It's still acceptable to talk about people dying though. – Max Williams Feb 13 '18 at 14:06
  • ? duplicate: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/207087/origin-of-terms-passed-away-and-deceased – lbf Feb 13 '18 at 14:34
  • Also see Proper usage of “passed” vs “passed away” I am uncertain of the origin of passed but associate it with Southern and African-American vernacular. – choster Feb 13 '18 at 14:50
  • @user5768790 Ah, the answer. I will just have to live with this strange euphemism. I refuse to say it, though. – RedSonja Feb 15 '18 at 13:50
  • Yes I hate it as well, and I won't use it either! It has pseudy feel to it like we are embarrassed to use the real word. I first heard it from Australians, near Australia. I suppose it does sound softer as Max Williams says. I do use it back to someone else using it - if they are talking about someone they knew who has died, so as not to offend them. But I grit my teeth... One good thing about it that does work for me is that it has the sense, or can, that we go on, to our next life. That may be a more modern concept that is growing, among some groups. 'Death' was always so... final... – Jelila Feb 17 '18 at 00:26
  • What makes you think there's a change, please?

    "Passed away" has been common in mainstream English for centuries.

    "Passed" by itself strikes my ear as more likely to come from probably black, probably religious and probably female people. That by itself might explain a change here in the UK, where female or male, the percentage of black religious people was insignificant but has been increasing for 70 years

     – Robbie Goodwin Feb 25 '18 at 01:36

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I find that people use "passed" if they are religious or superstitious, to suggest that their spirits are alive, they have merely 'passed' to another realm.

Steven W Rodgers
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