passenger English · revision 5617

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1337|origins=la passus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /ˈpæs.ən.dʒə/, /ˈpæs.ɪn.dʒə/, US /ˈpæs.ən.dʒɚ/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English passager, [[bor|fro|passagier|alt=passageor, passager|t=traveller, passer-by]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) a noun use of the adjective passager “passing, fleeting, travelling”, from passage “passage”,^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) from passer “to go by”, from Vulgar Latin *passāre, from Latin passus “step, pace”.^(Etymonline) See [[passage]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) An n was added before the -ger in late Middle English, giving passynger about 1421, as in [[messenger]], [[harbinger]] and [[scavenger]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A ferry for passengers, passajour, in 1337, and a traveller before 1338, in Mannyng's Chronicle.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) Etymonline has the mid-14th century for “a passer-by, a traveller”.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ A traveller on foot, a wayfarer, is from about 1330 and now unusual except in ''foot-passenger''.^(OED 1989)^(SOED 2002) A person carried in a vessel or vehicle is first recorded in Guylford's Pilgrimage (1511).^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) In the 16th century a passenger could also be a bird of passage or a hawk caught on migration.^(OED 1989) A member of a team who does little of the work is a later figurative sense, chiefly British.^(Collins 2023)^(AHD)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1337 – a passenger ferry.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 1338 – a traveller.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 1421 – the form passynger.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1511 – a traveller in a vehicle or ship.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A person travelling in a car, bus, train, ship or aircraft who is not driving or working on it.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(chiefly British)'' A member of a group or team who does not do a fair share of the work.^(Collins 2023)^(AHD)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[nonpassenger]]

+ * [[passenger mile]]

+ * [[passenger pigeon]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[pass]]

+ * [[passage]]

+ * [[messenger]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}