When did people stop dying?

[AhFeckRef]

When I was younger people would say that so and so had "died",  nowadays everybody says they have "passed away" or "passed on". 
What's wrong with saying a person has died?  Media outlets never use the term any more.  Is there some pc reason for all this?

Just wondering!

[Hardy]

The yanks can't bring themselves to say the words for anything they find distasteful or don't want to contemplate. So a toilet or jacks becomes a bathroom or men's room, an old person is a senior citizen who doesn't die but passes on and is buried by a mortician, not an undertaker in a casket instead of a coffin.

It's American cultural imperialism. Our society apes the idiom they hear on TV, which is overwhelmingly American, so as well as the above, you have even announcers on the BBC (which used to have a correct pronunciation department) talking about cere-moanies and terri-tories and every second bastard you run into these days ending every sentence with an upward inflexion that turns it into a question.

Room, five minutes, baseball bat.

</rant>

[Arthur_Friend]

The yanks can't bring themselves to say the words for anything they find distasteful or don't want to contemplate. So a toilet or jacks becomes a bathroom or men's room, an old person is a senior citizen who doesn't die but passes on and is buried by a mortician, not an undertaker in a casket instead of a coffin.

It's American cultural imperialism. Our society apes the idiom they hear on TV, which is overwhelmingly American, so as well as the above, you have even announcers on the BBC (which used to have a correct pronunciation department) talking about cere-moanies and terri-tories and every second b**tard you run into these days ending every sentence with an upward inflexion that turns it into a question.

Room, five minutes, baseball bat.

</rant>

Enough already.

[ONeill]

The yanks can't bring themselves to say the words for anything they find distasteful or don't want to contemplate.

</rant>

Yes, in Tyrone we're the same. You never hear anyone say M**th.

[Orior]

The yanks can't bring themselves to say the words for anything they find distasteful or don't want to contemplate. So a toilet or jacks becomes a bathroom or men's room, an old person is a senior citizen who doesn't die but passes on and is buried by a mortician, not an undertaker in a casket instead of a coffin.

It's American cultural imperialism. Our society apes the idiom they hear on TV, which is overwhelmingly American, so as well as the above, you have even announcers on the BBC (which used to have a correct pronunciation department) talking about cere-moanies and terri-tories and every second b**tard you run into these days ending every sentence with an upward inflexion that turns it into a question.

Room, five minutes, baseball bat.

</rant>

I was in Newry the other day. There were plenty of toilets for Men, but hardly any for Gentlemen. Sort it out!

[omaghjoe]

I always remember the term "passed away" being used when I was young, its no new thing to me.

Here's an article about the usage of "passed on"

https://www.quora.com/Why-do-some-Americans-say-passed-when-the-English-say-passed-on-or-passed-away

so it would appear to came into common usage after WWI so it has been around for a while longer than most of us. Incidentally I never heard "passed on" or "passed" before I lived in America.

Thing to remember is language and accents evolve over time, and this is likely to speed up even more as the world becomes more connected, something you have to accept as you get older....Hardy you'll be heading for a stroke b4 50 at this rate.

[ONeill]

Cough...cough....before 50....

[AhFeckRef]

I kinda agree with this lads view..http://www.harpyness.com/2010/09/08/on-dying-and-passing-away-a-rant/

A news report on the Paris tragedies talked about the victims passing away. It felt inapropriate considering they were mowed down with a kalashnikov. Why try to sugar coat such atrocities in soft language. 

[Esmarelda]

When buying life assurance or the like, people always say "if something ever happened you" when they mean "if you die". Just say it.

[ziggysego]

I blame Captain Jack Harkness