Use of "passes away"

Passes away is not a synonym. As other have said, people die.
Perhaps someone who dies of natural causes while sleeping passes away, but I wouldn't use it there either.
One of our deskers always changes "the soldier died in Iraq" to "the soldier was killed in Iraq" to be more accurate.

 

It's not a synonym, it's a euphamism. We don't write about things to make people feel better. We write about it to inform people.

 

You mean they really didn't go to puppy heaven?

 

The minute you use passes away, you are opening the door to "went home to his sweet Lord Jesus."

They died. That's what you write.

It's a form of euphemistic double-speak, and, as such, has no business in the newspaper.

Neither do terms like "collateral damage" or "coalition of the willing" or a million other things, either, by the way.

 

Go to sleep in Christ? That's awful. Thankfully I've never read that one before now.

 

Kind of off the subject, but the way obituaries are written these days since they are paid for have some of the most hilarious flowery language.

 

I had always hated "passed away." I thought when my father died last month my opinion might change.
Nope. When people tell me they're sorry my father passed away, I thank them then cringe. I was there with him. He didn't pass away. He died. Nothing painful about speaking the truth. No need to put cherries on it.

 

Longest, most flowery-written obit on any non-famous person I've ever read. It was written by her husband (owner of the funeral home), and does include this line: "Perhaps she experienced the most joy as she nursed our sons for the first fourteen months of their lives."

http://www.legacy.com/WacoTrib/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=88721136

 

You don't pass away in a car wreck. You die there.

Don't say "pass away" in a hed, but it's ok sometimes in the story.

 

My left eye just exploded trying to read that.

 

First, I think it's always "died".

Having said that, some of the euphamisms for death are funny as hell... going on to glory, resting in the arms of jesus, shuffling off the mortal coil, tripping the light fantastic (never seen it, someone said it once.. always struck me as cool/wierd), snuffing it, checking out (a favorite of my dad, for some reason).