passant

Alternative forms

• passaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman passant, Middle French passant.

Adjective

passant (not comparable)

1. (heraldry, of a four-legged animal) Walking, usually to the right, and looking straight ahead with the right forepaw raised from the ground. [from 15th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book III, canto I:

     He them espying, gan himselfe prepare, / And on his arme addresse his goodly shield / That bore a Lion passant in a golden field.

2. (obsolete) Currently in use; in vogue. [17th-19th c.]
   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, III.7:

     Many opinions are passant concerning the basilisk, or little king of serpents, commonly called the cockatrice [...].

Noun

passant (plural passants)

1. (chess) part of the phrase en passant

Verb

passant

1. present participle of passar

Preposition

passant

1. beyond, past
2. around (e.g. a corner)

   La botiga és només passant la cantonada.

   The shop is just around the corner.

Etymology

From Middle French passant.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pas‧sant

Noun

passant m (plural passanten, diminutive passantje n)

1. passer-by

   De passanten negeerden de doedelzakspeler voornamelijk, maar sommigen gooiden wat in zijn pet.

   The passers-by mostly ignored the piper, but some threw something in his cap.

Etymology

First attested in Old French.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɑ.sɑ̃/, /pa.sɑ̃/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

passant m (plural passants)

1. passer-by
   • 1837, Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche, volume 1, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Chapter XXXV:

     « Arrête, larron ! s’écriait-il ; arrête, félon, bandit, détrousseur de passants ; je te tiens ici, et ton cimeterre ne te sera bon à rien. »

     "Stop, thief!" cried he; "Stop, traitor, bandit, robber of passers-by; I hold thee here, and thy scimitar will be of no use to thee."

2. loop (in belt etc.)

Adjective

passant (feminine singular passante, masculine plural passants, feminine plural passantes)

1. busy (as in a busy street)
2. (heraldry) passant

Verb

passant

1. present participle of passer

Further reading

• “passant” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Verb

passant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of passō

Verb

passant

1. present participle of passer