English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

[millimole]

Another one I've noticed recently, which might be an Americanism, is "pass" as a euphemism for die.
"When my neighbour passed his house was sold"

I know that we anglophones don't like to directly refer to death, but this seems to be particularly weird. Does it refer to 'passing to the other side'? or just 'passing on'?

[Jdsk]

Another one I've noticed recently, which might be an Americanism, is "pass" as a euphemism for die.
"When my neighbour passed his house was sold"

I know that we anglophones don't like to directly refer to death, but this seems to be particularly weird. Does it refer to 'passing to the other side'? or just 'passing on'?

At the moment it is used more in US English than in UK English, but I don't know if it's one of the many examples of the American version preserving an older usage rather than inventing a new one. I can't thing offhand of an example from English literature...

It feels as if it has an element of passing to the other side, but that belief was just about universal until quite recently. It would be interesting to see if supernaturalists use it more often.

Jonathan

[Mistik-ka]

✓
I presumed uptick was some sort of American usage but if you can believe stuff on the internet they say check mark rather than tick.

It is my impression that "check mark" has increasingly been nudged off-stage in North American English usage, as exemplified in the increasingly clichéd reference to something with comprehensive application as "ticking all the boxes".

[thirdcrank]

ticking all the boxes

That's a cliché here too and it's easy to assume that everything like that starts in the US. I would say that "checking all the boxes" would imply to me something like inspecting them all, rather than marking them as completed.

[Mistik-ka]

The substation of "pass" for "die" has become almost universal in North America. "To pass" is an accepted euphemism; "to die" seems to be regarded as crude and distasteful, not to be used in polite or sensitive company. (As is the case with so many common but unspeakable bodily functions.)

My speculation is that it is akin to not speaking of "the devil", lest he appear. (Or The Good Folk, or any other entity or process that is unknown and feared.) As death increasingly becomes something that happens elsewhere and out of sight, rather than in an upstairs bedroom, people lose familiarity with it and become less capable of dealing with it. Perhaps using "to pass" is simply a subtle form of denial?

Denying reality is rarely a sign of societal health.

[Cowsham]

Another one I've noticed recently, which might be an Americanism, is "pass" as a euphemism for die.
"When my neighbour passed his house was sold"

I know that we anglophones don't like to directly refer to death, but this seems to be particularly weird. Does it refer to 'passing to the other side'? or just 'passing on'?

Are you sure he wasn't just a past neighbor ?

[peterb]

Another one I've noticed recently, which might be an Americanism, is "pass" as a euphemism for die.
"When my neighbour passed his house was sold"

I know that we anglophones don't like to directly refer to death, but this seems to be particularly weird. Does it refer to 'passing to the other side'? or just 'passing on'?

I tbelieve 'pass' is a shortening of the expression 'passed away', apparently in use since the 1400s to refer to the belief that the soul physically “passed on” to the afterlife.

[thirdcrank]

The fashion is to have colleagues. I'm not going to have a look but our ASDA has something like "Colleague parking."

Apologies to MickF

IMG_0315.JPG (48.53 KiB) Viewed 827 times

[Jdsk]

The fashion is to have colleagues. I'm not going to have a look but our ASDA has something like "Colleague parking."

I'd prefer a possessive apostrophe on that. It isn't comfortable but I could see it as an adjunct noun if I tried very hard.

Jonathan

[Vorpal]

I'd prefer a possessive apostrophe on that. It isn't comfortable but I could see it as an adjunct noun if I tried very hard.

Jonathan

Maybe it's a warning

[Jdsk]

I'd prefer a possessive apostrophe on that. It isn't comfortable but I could see it as an adjunct noun if I tried very hard.

Maybe it's a warning

Very good.

: - )

Jonathan

[Mick F]

Going back the apostrophe thing, we bought a couple of bottles of red wine the other day.

Eagle's Pass.

So there's only one eagle in this pass?
Does he/she not have a mate?

https://www.coop.co.uk/products/eagles-pass-shiraz

[Bmblbzzz]

The pass could be named after a Mr (or even Mrs) Eagle. Was it good wine?

[Mick F]

Ok, I suppose, but it's only wine after all.
As you can tell, wine is wine as far as I'm concerned. No point paying much for it.

As for Mr or Mrs Eagle, the logo on the bottle has wings.

[thirdcrank]

I've ranted before about how the word "colleague" has lost much of its meaning. Morrisons supermarkets have made special provision for NHS people during the pandemic, but explain it thus:-

All colleagues with an NHS badge will be able to get into the store to stock up on the products they need.

https://my.morrisons.com/storefinder/11