When did "passed" replace "died" -- and WHY?

[Anonymous]

My older southern in laws say it. I know it very much confused my then 3 year old when his grandfather died because he didn't understand what they meant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's such a confusing use. I hear that someone passed, and I'm like "... a kidney stone? an intersection?"

When I was a kid, the country folk used to say "passed away," but it was very definitely a hick thing. And now "passed" all by itself.

Why have so many well-read and otherwise well-spoken people taken up this sloppy speech? What's the objection to "died"?

I heard passed away for people we knew and died for people in the newspaper. I grew up in a highly educated Boston suburb in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

[Anonymous]

Passed away and passed on have been around forever and have nothing to do with social media filters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in DC and “passed” was very common. Maybe it’s regional?

It’s very much a Black thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Passed away and passed on have been around forever and have nothing to do with social media filters.

Right? What a weird interpretation. Those euphemisms have always been used by the weak who can't understand that saying "died" is not going to do any harm and that avoiding it doesn't make it better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Passed away and passed on have been around forever and have nothing to do with social media filters.

Of course, but OP asked why it’s more common now. SMFs are why. It isn’t even active ones, most social media has deleted this one as overbroad but the impact on language continues, which is extremely normal for how language evolves.

[Anonymous]

Passed away or passed is fine. I started getting really confused when people told me their relatives transitioned.

[Anonymous]

This isn’t a social media thing. At some point, people seem to have decided that saying someone died was too harsh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t a social media thing. At some point, people seem to have decided that saying someone died was too harsh.

"At some point" being in the far distant past, death euphemisms are incredibly common and very old.

[Anonymous]

I live in Chicago and this is something only black people say. Along with "I appreciate you" instead of thank you, and "have a blessed day." I have never heard a white person say that someone "passed". The euphemism they might use is "lost" as in "I lost my brother to cancer last year."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in DC and “passed” was very common. Maybe it’s regional?

Also DC and agree--though in my experience, it's more of an African American thing?

Definitely not new, though.

[Anonymous]

I was thinking about this other day because I have always hated it. I say died. They died. Because they did. When people say passed it drives me nuts. Doesn't make them any less dead. It's such a stupid euphemism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely hate it. Just say died. Can't answer your question though. I agree it sounds old-fashioned, immature, and weird. I think peole think it sounds more polite but it sounds just completely stupid.

No, it’s for social media filters.

Um, no it's not. Some of us operate in the real world (irl if that helps you) and people say this all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wait until you find out about the term unalived!

I hate the word passed but I love unalived!

[Anonymous]

I always say passed away. Passed sounds wrong though. I think died is too harsh. My car battery died, not my mom.