passim

English

WOTD – 2 January 2007

Etymology

From the Latin passim (“here and there, everywhere”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpæsɪm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adverb

passim (not comparable)

1. throughout or frequently
2. here and there

Usage notes

Used especially in citations, often with simply the name of a book or writer, to indicate that something (as a word, phrase, or idea) is to be found at many places throughout the section, book, or writings of the author cited.

Quotations

• 1751, David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals:

  The sceptics assert [Sext. Emp. adrersus Math. lib. viii.], though absurdly, that the origin of all religious worship was derived from the utility of inanimate objects, as the sun and moon, to the support and well-being of mankind. This is also the common reason assigned by historians, for the deification of eminent heroes and legislators [Diod. Sic. passim.].

• 1978 — Supreme Court of the United States, F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation

  See also Hearings on H.R.8825 before the House Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 70th Cong., 1st Sess., passim (1928).

Translations

throughout; frequently

• Bulgarian: навсякъде (bg) (navsjakǎde)
• Dutch: passim (nl)

here and there

• Bulgarian: тук-там (bg) (tuk-tam)
• Dutch: passim (nl)
• German: passim (de)
• Greek: σποράδην (el) (sporádin)
• Japanese: あっちこっち (acchi kocchi)
• Latin: passim

Anagrams

• sampis

Latin

Etymology

From passus (“spread out”), from pandō (“I spread”).

Adverb

passim (not comparable)

1. everywhere

   Synonyms: ubique, quācumquē

2. here and there, hither and thither; (at or to different places)
3. without distinction, without order, randomly

   Synonym: prōmiscē

4. mindlessly, without thinking about it

   Synonym: temere

Descendants

• English: passim

References

• “passim”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “passim”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• passim in Enrico Olivetti, editor (2003-2023) Dizionario Latino, Olivetti Media Communication
• passim in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• passim in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • far and wide; on all sides; everywhere: longe lateque, passim (e.g. fluere)
    

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin passim.

Adverb

passim

1. passim

Spanish

Adverb

passim

1. passim

Further reading

• “passim”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014