Language

I was listening to something earlier and wondered when it was that we became so bothered by one of life’s certainties. More precisely, when and why did someone decide that it was somehow inappropriate to say or write that someone has died?

Just imagine:

Bruce Willis stars in the blockbuster, Pass Away Hard.
Cutting Crew’s top 5 hit, (I Just) Passed Away in Your Arms
Agatha Christie’s murder, mystery, [Someone] Passing Away on the Nile
Bond’s latest adventure, Live and Let Pass Away (McCartney would have struggled with that one, eh?)
Arthur Miller, The Passing Away of a Salesman
Jack Pallance and Shelley Winters starring in I Passed Away a Thousand Times (1955) You remember that one, right? Especially you youngsters, obviously.
Okay, I think you get the picture. Yes, I had to refer to Goooogle for that last one, so I guess it’s time to stop.

On a more significant note, I can just imagine Benjamin Franklin, had he been around today, asserting that “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except passing away and compulsory contributions to state revenue, levied by governments on workers’ incomes and the profits earned by businesses, or added to the cost of goods, services and transactions.”

It’s very odd. I guess it came from our cousins on the other side of the Atlantic (or Pacific, if you happen to be out here in Taiwan). You know, the same crowd who seem to find it difficult to utter the word toilet. Or perhaps they really do need to keep taking a bath, and I have simply misunderstood all these years. They do smell rather fragrant. Sometimes.

Ultimately, this passed away in the wool* lover of proper English, will not succumb to this particular linguistic mutation, while accepting that language is always changing, otherwise I may well have concluded, thus:

Forsooth, I tell thee. I feel somewhat afeard that yonder apothecary may not be able to sell me medicine to cure the flux. Mine own expiry would be but a goodly fandangle.

*Disclaimer. This is much better as an aural gag. Or is that oral?

I’m pretty sure that someone will come along and point out that I have already succumbed to Americanisms. I don’t care about that. I care about this particular linguistic affectation because it just makes no sense. Deal with it. 😉