Think of standing at the side of a road and watching something come towards you, move by, and disappear. Two things fall out of that one moment. First, it went past — so cars go past you, a ball goes from one player to another, and days go by one after another. Second, it did not stay — so a thought that lasts a second, a remark you touch and leave, a fashion that , and a life or a custom that reaches its end are all described with the same word.
From the word’s history
'Passing' is 'pass' plus '-ing'. The 'pass' line runs back through Middle English passen and Old French passer to Vulgar Latin *passare, from Latin passus, a step. So the action underneath every use is 'stepping across, going past'.
「passing」是 pass 加上 -ing。pass 這條線經過中古英文 passen、古法文 passer，一路追到通俗拉丁文 *passare，而 *passare 又來自拉丁文 passus（一步）。所以 passing 底下那個動作，一直都是「跨過去、走過去」。
Wiktionary etymology tree supplied in packet (kaikki extract, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料13 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
passingadj/ˈpɑːsɪŋ/
- 1
That passes away; ephemeral.
- And solace sought he none from priest nor leech, / And soon the same in movement and in speech / As heretofore he fill'd the passing hours […]
- […]this is just a passing thing But I believe in your sweet loving, loving, babe With every summer falling rain
- 2
archaicliteraryPre-eminent, excellent, extreme.
- her passing deformity
- It was by dint of passing strength, / That he moved the massy stone at length.
- 3
Vague, cursory.
- to make a passing comment
- to have a passing acquaintance with somebody or something
- 4
Going past.
- passing cars
- 5
That passes in any sense.
- a passing transsexual
passingadv/ˈpɑːsɪŋ/
- 1
archaicliterarySurpassingly, greatly.
- [...] for she was called a fair lady, and a passing wise, and her name was called Igraine.
- How wonderful is Death, / Death and his brother Sleep! / One, pale as yonder waning moon / With lips of lurid blue; / The other, rosy as the morn / When throned on ocean's wave / It blushes o'er the world: / Yet both so passing wonderful!
passingnoun/ˈpɑːsɪŋ/
- 1
Death, dying; the end of something.
- 2
The fact of going past; a movement from one place to another or a change from one state to another.
- And since he did not see Louie by the folding door, Louie knew that in his former passings and repassings he could not have seen her either.
- 3
lawThe act of approving a bill etc.
- But capital was proving difficult to raise; rumours were in the air that the G.W.R. and L.S.W.R. were about to patch up their quarrel, and the people of Southampton, who twelve months earlier had staged a torch-light procession to celebrate the passing of the D.N.S.R. Act, were increasingly loath to part with their cash.
- 4
hobbieslifestylesportsThe act of passing a ball etc. to another player.
- 5
A form of juggling where several people pass props between each other, usually clubs or rings.
- 6
human-sciencessciencessocial-scienceThe ability of a person to be regarded as a member of an identity group or category different from their own.
- When there is a discrepancy between an individual's actual social identity and his virtual one, it is possible for this fact to be known to us before we normals contact him, or to be quite evident when he presents himself before us. He is a discredited person, and it is mainly he I have been dealing with until now. … However, when his differentness is not immediately apparent, and is not known beforehand, … he is a discreditable, not a discredited person …. The issue is … that of managing information about his failing. To display or not to display; to tell or not to tell; to let on or not to let on; to lie or not to lie; and in each case, to whom, how, when, and where. … It is this second general issue, the management of undisclosed discrediting information about self, that I am focusing on in these notes - in brief, 'passing'.
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。