Those who are of a religious persuasion would debate that with you (though I wouldn’t).
I do agree that “passed” is a slightly silly euphemism, but maybe some find it comforting to think of death that way, so we should probably not judge too harshly. Language is full of euphemisms and circumlocutions that sweeten the pill of truth. 
Bit like emojis in forum posts really. 
Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal-a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body.
Dwight L. Moody
The priest at my father’s funeral told my mother that, “He’d gone to a better place.”
My mother was so angry that she stopped going to his Masses.
And on a similar theme, again from Barry Humphries, on the death of Australian actress Coral Browne who was famously foul mouthed:
She left behind an emptiness
A gap, a void, a trough
The world is quite a good deal less
Since Coral Browne fucked off
Again from BH, and again on theme, sorry to those of a delicate disposition.
The flamboyant much married Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was involved in a minor traffic accident in LA. A police car duly arrived and the cop, frustrated by the actress’ non-stop delivery said ‘Fuck Off’, and she duly drove away.
Later she was summonsed for leaving the scene of an accident and her long winded defence in court rested on the English meaning of the phrase that the policeman had used, which of course, is, ‘Go Away’ 
Has anybody noticed, that ‘The Oldie’ has arrived? 
Well, that’s killed the thread. 
Il est décédé, il est mort.
Cerne Abbas giant, looks fairly prehistoric but there’s no mention of him before the 17thC I believe.
Looks like hard work😉
The one that always puzzles me is “lost” - as in “we lost Fred last year”.
Presumably the exact whereabouts of the person in question are, in fact, known almost all of the time so they are not in any way “lost”.
Unless Fred is a cat or dog, presumably. Or you took him to Dartmoor or the Gobi.
This thread has died a death.
Indeed. Since I can’t beat them, I may as well join them. This thread wouldn’t voom if you put 4 thousand volts through it.
It was Fred who lost his life, not his survivors.
The one that never fails to amuse “fell asleep on…” Usually on Victorian and Edwardian tombstones.
One might say “We lost the company and friendship of Fred” which fits with “We really miss Fred now he’s gone”. The loss is felt by those who remain.
That’s failing to understand how some people in earlier times viewed death, as being a temporary pause with the expectation of awakening later, possibly in a place without struggle, hardship, pain and suffering. It may seem simple superstition now, but for them is was very meaningful
I was looking for something to cheer me up and all I can see is the different ways that people have used to describe death.
Which of course is where passed, or passed on came from. It’s late mediaeval I think when it was perfectly normal for everyone to look on death as passing from this realm to the next.
I know Jane, sorry. At least the pythons manage it in an amusing manner.
