In a film many years ago, Robert Newton's character refers to a remark made by one of his fellow performers about a deceased person by saying that "She did not pass on, pass over or pass out. She died !"
Frank Gibbons, the character played by Newton in the great wartime film "This Happy Breed" was a realist. He didn't believe in hiding the truth or in finding comfortable ways of describing unhappy events. Until recently I thought that this approach to life was the norm, but I was wrong.
In the last year or so, television and film seems to have decided that referring to dying is not a good thing; instead, anyone who dies is referred to as having "passed", whatever this may mean. Is it a nod to the pseudo-religiosity that seems to pervade all corners of our world, or is it due to some simple fear of death ? Are the words die, died, dead, death and dying no longer considered acceptable in polite society ? Will they soon be discouraged even more strongly for fear that they may be considered frightening to some or may cause offence to the recently bereaved ?
What is this nonsensical lunacy all about ?
Is it something to do with selling programmes and films to the USA, where most of this type of idiocy originates, or is it simply further evidence of the extent to which our own culture and language are being drowned out by the seemingly endless influx of the most appalling language, ridiculous phraseology and verbosity and, worst of all, a mind bogglingly narcissistic and puerile culture from across the Atlantic ?
Whatever the answer, "passed" as a euphemism for "died" is a ridiculous use of language. Dead is dead, nothing more and nothing less.
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