passé

See also: passe, Passe, pâssé, Pässe, and påsse

English

Alternative forms

• passe

Etymology

From French passé (“passed”, past participle of passer (“to pass”)).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpæ.seɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pæˈseɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ

Adjective

passé (comparative more passé, superlative most passé)

1. (colloquial) Dated; out of style; old-fashioned.
   • 1964, Philip K. Dick, “FOUR”, in Clans of the Alphane Moon, United States: Ace Books, →OCLC; republished London: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1996, →ISBN, page 27:

     Mary felt annoyed at the girl; just because bras had become passé, did a girl with so pronounced a bosom have to cater to fashion? In this case practicality dictated a bra, and Mary stood at the desk feeling herself flushing with disapproval.

   • 1997, Courtney Taylor-Taylor, “Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth”, performed by The Dandy Warhols:

     I never thought you'd be a junkie, because heroin is so passé.

   • 2007, “Turn On Billie”, performed by The Pierces:

     We'll paint the town blue 'cause, baby, red is so passé.

   • 2022 June 17, Michelle Goldberg, “The Future Isn’t Female Anymore”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     It is perhaps inevitable that a movement that was the height of fashion in the last decade would start to seem passé in this one. That’s how style works; the young and innovative distinguish themselves by breaking with the conventions of their predecessors.

   • 2023 June 16, Daisy Jones, “Cool, sexy and stinking of smoke: why are TV dramas giving cigarettes a comeback?”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Then, like side fringes, Smirnoff Ice and tights under denim shorts, smoking was suddenly passé – distasteful, even gross.

2. Past one's prime; worn; faded.
   • 1939 November, “Pertinent Paragraphs: The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 357:

     The coaching stock is in general in a very passé condition, but the ex-royal saloon, though needing a coat of paint outside, as another photograph shows, is spotless inside.

Usage notes

As in French, passée is sometimes used for the feminine: "a passée belle".

Synonyms

• (dated, old-fashioned): disused, outdated, outworn; see also Thesaurus:obsolete or Thesaurus:unfashionable
• (past one's prime): raddled, wasted, worn-out; see also Thesaurus:deteriorated

Translations

dated; out of style; old-fashioned

• Bulgarian: отживял (bg) (otživjal), старомоден (bg) (staromoden)
• Czech: odbytý, minulý (cs), passé (cs)
• German: veraltet; altmodisch
• Polish: passé (pl)
• Russian: старомо́дный (ru) m (staromódnyj)
• Swedish: passé (sv)

Noun

passé (plural passés)

1. (fencing) An attack that passes the target without hitting.

Anagrams

• spaes, pases, PESAs, apses, apess

Danish

Alternative forms

• passe

Etymology

From French passé.

Adjective

passé (uninflectable)

1. passé (old-fashioned)

   Coordinate term: out

References

• “passé” in Den Danske Ordbog

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa.se/ ~ /pɑ.se/

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Paris)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Brétigny-sur-Orge)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Massy)):

  (file)

Noun

passé m (plural passés)

1. past tense
2. past (opposite of future)

Derived terms

• chose du passé
• dans le passé
• par le passé
• passé composé
• passé proche
• passé simple
• passé surcomposé

Adjective

passé (feminine passée, masculine plural passés, feminine plural passées)

1. past
2. (used with certain temporal nouns) last

   Synonym: dernier

   la semaine passée ; l'année passée, l’an passé ; l'hiver passé ― last week; last year; last winter

Derived terms

• participe passé
• passé de mode

Descendants

• Haitian Creole: pase

Participle

passé (feminine passée, masculine plural passés, feminine plural passées)

1. past participle of passer

Further reading

• “passé”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Anagrams

• pesas

German

Alternative forms

• passee (superseded)

Etymology

Borrowed from French passé.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˌpaˈseː]

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Adjective

passé (indeclinable, predicative only)

1. past, over

   Synonyms: vorbei, vergangen

Declension

Only used predicatively. Indeclinable, predicative-only.

Ladin

Verb

passé m (pl passés, f passeda, fpl passedes)

1. alternative form of passer
2. past participle of passer

Louisiana Creole

Etymology

From French passer (“to pass”), compare Haitian Creole pase.

Verb

passé

1. to pass

References

• Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales

Piedmontese

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *passāre, derived from Latin passus (“step”, noun).

Verb

passé

1. to pass

Polish

Etymology

Etymology tree

French passéubor.

Polish passé

Unadapted borrowing from French passé.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pasˈsɛ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛ
• Syllabification: pas‧sé

Adjective

passé (not comparable, indeclinable, no derived adverb)

1. outdated, outmoded, passé, unfashionable

   Synonyms: miniony, niemodny, nienowoczesny, przebrzmiały, stary

Further reading

• “passé”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[3] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “passé”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[4] (in Polish)

Spanish

Verb

passé

1. first-person singular preterite indicative of passar

Swedish

Adjective

passé (comparative mer passé, superlative mest passé)

1. passé (dated, out of style, past one's prime)

References

• “passé”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “passé”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “passé”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)