A Passing Tense

Last week's episode of the HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm opened with a shot of Larry David, his cousin Andy, and Larry's father, Nat David, standing in front of Adele David's tombstone, which read:

Born
Sept 18, 1920

Past Away
Oct 21, 2001

Larry: "Past away"? P-a-s-t? Dad, you spelled "passed" wrong. It's not spelled p-a-s-t. "Passed away": p-a-s-s-e-d.
Nat: I know how to spell it. It's $50 a letter.
Larry: You spelled it wrong on purpose to save $100?
Nat: Yes. Why not? It's the same meaning. Everyone knows what it means.
Andy: It's not the same meaning.
Larry: You saved $100? Well, I would have paid for it. Are you kidding?
Nat: Well, I didn't ask you because I didn't want to bother you. That was the whole idea.
Andy: That's not the nicest way to honor your wife.
Larry: I'm sorry. I have to change this. You got the name of the stonemason?
Nat: Yes, I have the name of the stonemason.
Larry: I'm gonna change this. I'm gonna spell it the right way.
(Episode 67, "The Black Swan," first broadcast on November 1, 2009)

By the end of the episode--after Larry has quarreled with a waiter, killed a black swan, and insulted the stonemason--the marker has been corrected, though with language that can't be repeated with children in the room.

Now here's the funny thing. Though the distinction that Larry draws between the homophones passed and past is correct in our own time, a century or two back Nat could have gotten away with his miserly misspelling. Both words are derived from the verb pass, and at one time past was commonly used for the past tense and the past participle. The editors of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage (1994) offer several examples:

• I did not tell you how I past my time yesterday.
  (Jonathan Swift, Journal to Stella, 25 Jan. 1711)


• . . . he was much offended . . . that he past the latter part of his life in a state of hostility.
  (Samuel Johnson, Preface to Johnosn's edition of Shakespeare, 1765)


• I know what has past between you.
  (Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, 1773)


• He past; a son of nobler tone.
  (Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, 1850)

Nowadays past has lost its status as a verb form (it's busy enough serving as a noun, adjective, adverb, and preposition), leaving passed to fill the role of past tense. But who knows? Perhaps this, too, shall pass.

More About Commonly Confused Words:

• Glossary of Usage
• Review Quiz: Commonly Confused Words
• Quiz on 20 Commonly Confused Words

Image: Larry David, co-creator. producer, and star of the HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm © 2009 Home Box Office, Inc.