Origins
The verb 'pass' is one of English's most polysemous words, with dozens of distinct senses catalogued in comprehensive dictionaries. Yet this extraordinary range of meanings radiates from a single concrete image: taking a step. The etymology traces the word from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to spread' through Latin and French to become one of the most productive verbs in the English language.
Middle English 'passen' was borrowed from Old French 'passer' (to step, walk, pass by, go across, go through, spend time), which descended from Vulgar Latin *passāre. This Vulgar Latin verb was formed from the Latin noun 'passus' (a step, a pace — a unit of measurement equal to about five Roman feet, the distance covered by two steps). 'Passus' was originally the past participle of 'pandere' (to spread, stretch, extend), from PIE *peth₂- (to spread, extend). The logic is clear: a step is a spreading of the legs, an extension of the body forward. The same PIE root produced Greek 'petannynai' (to spread out), Latin 'patēre' (to be open, to extend — source of 'patent'), and English 'fathom' (originally the span of outstretched arms).
The semantic development from 'take a step' to 'pass' involves a series of natural extensions. To step is to move forward; to move forward is to go past things; to go past things is to leave them behind; to leave them behind is to cause them to be in the past. From this simple chain, English derived the spatial sense (pass through a town), the temporal sense (time passes), the transferential sense (pass the salt — originally to step toward someone, delivering something on the way), and the sense of surpassing (to pass someone in a race — to step beyond them).
French Influence
The compound words and derivatives from 'pass' are extraordinarily numerous. 'Passage' (from Old French 'passage') means the act of passing or a way through — a corridor, a channel, a section of text (a passage in a book is something the reader passes through). 'Passenger' was originally 'passager' in Old French, meaning a traveler, someone who passes through. The intrusive -n- in English 'passenger' appeared by analogy with 'messenger' and 'harbinger,' where the -n- is etymologically original.
'Passport' is from Old French 'passe port' — literally 'pass port,' an authorization to pass through a port or harbor. The compound dates from the fifteenth century, when controlled harbor access was the primary context for travel documentation. 'Trespass' comes from Old French 'trespasser' (tres- 'across, beyond' + passer 'to pass'), meaning literally 'to step beyond' — to cross a boundary, to transgress. The religious sense of trespass (sin) in the Lord's Prayer ('forgive us our trespasses') reflects this: sin is stepping beyond divine law.
'Compass' has a more complex path. It comes from Old French 'compasser' (to go around, to measure, to plot), from Vulgar Latin *compassāre (com- 'together' + *passāre 'to step'), literally 'to step together' or 'to pace off together.' The measuring instrument called a compass gets its name from its use in measuring distances and drawing circles — pacing off measurements on a map or chart.
Development
The word 'past' — both the adjective and the noun — is the past participle of 'pass.' What is past has passed; it has gone by, stepped beyond the present moment. This grammatical origin, in which a temporal concept (the past) derives from a spatial verb (to pass), illustrates how deeply English conceptualizes time as spatial movement.
The sense of 'pass' meaning to succeed in an examination dates from the eighteenth century. The metaphor is straightforward: the candidate moves through (passes through) the examination, emerging on the other side as one who has met the standard. The opposite, 'fail,' originally meant 'to be lacking' and carries no corresponding spatial metaphor, creating an asymmetry in which success is movement but failure is stasis.
In card games, 'to pass' means to decline one's turn — to let the action step past you without participating. In American football, 'to pass' means to throw the ball forward, transferring it through the air rather than carrying it. In legislation, a bill 'passes' when it successfully moves through the required stages of approval. In death, one 'passes' or 'passes away' — a euphemism that treats dying as the ultimate forward movement, stepping from this life to whatever comes next.
Figurative Development
The phrase 'to come to pass' (to happen, to occur) is attested from the fourteenth century and was a favorite of the King James Bible translators: 'And it came to pass...' appears hundreds of times in the KJV. The expression treats events as entities that approach from the future, arrive at the present, and then pass into the past — a spatial metaphor for temporal experience.
The adjective 'passable' (acceptable, adequate) reveals another semantic layer: that which can be passed through is not excellent but merely acceptable — it does not block your passage. 'Impassable,' by contrast, describes a road or obstacle that cannot be traversed. The related 'impassive' (from Latin 'impassibilis,' not susceptible to suffering) shares the root 'pass' through a different Latin derivation: 'pati' (to suffer, endure — from the same PIE root), giving us 'passion,' 'passive,' 'patient,' and 'compassion.'