Tracing the passes

well well well...'twas promised by a higher up in India Today that this'd become a column in the mag - Etymologically Yours...but a very similar editorial appeared in a mag of the group under the name of a believer in 555...anyways, posting it here for the fun of it


The other day, on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, I came across this signboard: "Trace Passers will be prosecuted" at the entrance of some old dilapidated bunglow. One knows of trespassers who make a thoroughfare out of a no-thoroughfare. One also knows of tress passers, which could either be a babe making passes with her tresses, or a dude who could be making passes at cute tresses. Trace passers, however, sent me on a hunt for the origin of the original trespasser. Tres comes from Latin trans which means beyond; while pass is pass, that is go by. "Entering unlawfully", the current meaning is first recorded in Scottish forest laws of 1290. The phrase trespass is also used euphemistically for "to die", an obvious association with "go beyond".

If we pass on to other part of the phrase, that is pass, we'll pass out because it'll open up a Pandora's box. Passing the buck to pass therefore is not a good idea, but we can pass out a few interesting facts about the phrases related with the word. Pass-fail as a grading system comes into being as late as 1959, while make a pass, that is "offer an amorous advance" was first used in 1928, most probably from a sporting sense. Impasse from the negation ("im") of passé and was first used by Voltaire as a euphemism for cul de sac. Cul de sac literally means the "arse/ass of a bag" but used for a street with one inlet/oulet with a dead end. Cul that sounds very classy, is considered a vulgar slang in French.

Having said all this I have already "traced past" , either to the delight or the chagrin of the author of the signboard. My day was however made with a girl flaunting these words on her tee: Stresspassers will be prosecuted. Highly recommended as office uniform!