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

• Dutch: passim (nl)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

here and there

• Dutch: passim (nl)
• German: passim (de)
• Greek: σποράδην (el) (sporádin)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: あっちこっち (acchi kocchi)
• Latin: passim

Anagrams

• sampis

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Latin

Etymology

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

Adverb

passim (not comparable)

1. everywhere (almost synonymous to ubique)
2. here and there, hither and thither; (at or to different places)

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 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)