3 ms·
> It's a social faux pas to say "died" about a person acquainted to the listener in most situations That’s overly simplistic and an Americanism. The resurgence
by epcoa 3y ago
> It's a social faux pas to say "died" about a person acquainted to the listener in most situations
That’s overly simplistic and an Americanism.
The resurgence of the “passed away” euphemism is a recent (about 40 years) phenomenon in American English which seems to have been started out of the funeral industry as prior to that “died” was nearly universal for both news stories and obituaries.
“Died” is not a social faux pas. It’s the good default option as well. Medical professionals are often trained to avoid any euphemisms for death.
I’ve never observed any problems professionally (as is standard) or personally using died even with folks that are religious.
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/207087/origin-of-terms-passed-away-and-deceased https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/207087/origin-of...
- oceanplexian 3y agoI have never use the phrase passed away. Always died, dead, gone, or something along those lines. When someone says passed away it sounds like they are trying to feign empathy, but hey, perhaps I am not an “aligned” human and need some RLHF.
- epcoa 3y agoI used to live in the south 30 years ago. I remember some southern baptist moms that wouldn't say the word "dead" - sometimes they'd spell it out, lol, similar to the way some people consider hell a swear word. This kind of hypersensitivity wasn't common outside of limited circles then, and it's certainly not more common today. Similarly I wouldn't consider saying hell in public in 2023 to be a social faux pas.