passing

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English

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WOTD – 25 July 2011
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

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From pass +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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passing

  1. present participle and gerund of pass

Adjective

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passing (comparative more passing, superlative most passing)

  1. That passes away; ephemeral. [from 14th c.]
    • 1814, Lord Byron, Lara, I.15:
      And solace sought he none from priest nor leech, / And soon the same in movement and in speech / As heretofore he fill'd the passing hours […]
    • 2010 September 21, Marianne Kirby, The Guardian:
      It might be possible to dismiss #dittowatch as just another passing internet fancy. After all, hashtags are ephemeral.
  2. (now rare, literary) Pre-eminent, excellent, extreme. [from 14th c.]
    • c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
      her passing deformity
    • 1835, Washington Irving, The Crayon Miscellany:
      It was by dint of passing strength, / That he moved the massy stone at length.
    • 1847, Robert Holmes, The Case of Ireland Stated:
      That parliament was destined, in one short hour of convulsive strength, in one short hour of passing glory, to humble the pride and alarm the fears of England.
  3. Vague, cursory. [from 18th c.]
    to make a passing comment
    • 2011 June 14, Stewart J Lawrence, The Guardian:
      Ardent pro-lifer Rick Santorum made one passing reference to "authenticity" as a litmus test for a conservative candidate, but if he was obliquely referring to Romney (and he was), you could be excused for missing the dig.
  4. Going past.
    passing cars
  5. That passes in any sense.
    a passing transsexual

Derived terms

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Translations

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Adverb

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passing (not comparable)

  1. (literary or archaic) Surpassingly, greatly. [from 14th c.]
    • 1485 July, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter I, in William Caxton, editor, Le Morte D’Arthur‎[1], volume 1:
      [...] for she was called a fair lady, and a passing wise, and her name was called Igraine.
    • 1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto I”, in Queen Mab; […], London: […] P. B. Shelley, […], →OCLC, page 3:
      How wonderful is Death, / Death and his brother Sleep! / One, pale as yonder waning moon / With lips of lurid blue; / The other, rosy as the morn / When throned on ocean's wave / It blushes o'er the world: / Yet both so passing wonderful!
    • 1926, Dorothy Parker, “Roundel”, in Enough Rope, page 89:
      She's passing fair; but so demure is she / So quiet is her gown, so smooth her hair, […]
    • 2010 October 29, Simon Hattenstone, quoting David Taylor, “Letters from lifers”, in The Guardian‎[2]:
      I find it passing strange that convicts understand honest folk, but honest folk don't understand convicts.

Usage notes

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  • This use is sometimes misconstrued as meaning "vaguely" or "slightly" (perhaps by confusion with such phrases as "passing fancy", under Adjective, above), leading to formations such as "more than passing clever" etc.

Translations

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Noun

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passing (countable and uncountable, plural passings)

  1. Death, dying; the end of something. [from 14th c.]
  2. The fact of going past; a movement from one place to another or a change from one state to another. [from 14th c.]
    • 1913, Oliver Onions, The Story of Louie:
      And since he did not see Louie by the folding door, Louie knew that in his former passings and repassings he could not have seen her either.
  3. (law) The act of approving a bill etc. [from 15th c.]
  4. (sports) The act of passing a ball etc. to another player. [from 19th c.]
  5. A form of juggling where several people pass props between each other, usually clubs or rings.
  6. (sociology) The ability of a person to be regarded as a member of an identity group or category different from their own.
    Coordinate term: pass
    • 1963, Erving Goffman, 'Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity' , Ch.2 at p.57, 58 (page numbers per the Pelican Books 1976 reprint)
      When there is a discrepancy between an individual's actual social identity and his virtual one, it is possible for this fact to be known to us before we normals contact him, or to be quite evident when he presents himself before us. He is a discredited person, and it is mainly he I have been dealing with until now.
      [...] However, when his differentness is not immediately apparent, and is not known beforehand, [...] he is a discreditable, not a discredited person [...]. The issue is [...] that of managing information about his failing. To display or not to display; to tell or not to tell; to let on or not to let on; to lie or not to lie; and in each case, to whom, how, when, and where.
      [...] It is this second general issue, the management of undisclosed discrediting information about self, that I am focusing on in these notes - in brief, 'passing'.

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Japanese: パッシング (passhingu)

Translations

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French

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French Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia fr

Etymology

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Borrowed from English passing.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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passing m (uncountable)

  1. (juggling) passing
    Le passing, ou comment jongler à plusieurs. (www.multiloisirs.com)

Further reading

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