passant

• passaunt (obsolete)

From Middle English passaunt (c. 1300), from Old French passant.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpæsənt/, (hyperforeign) /pəˈsɑnt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æsənt

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.]

   Coordinate terms: statant, courant

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

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

   • 1956 July, Col. H. C. B. Rogers, “Railway Heraldry”, in Railway Magazine, page 480:

     The official blazon of the arms of Perth is "Gules, a Holy Lambe passant regardant staff and cross argent, with the banner of St. Andrew proper, all within a double tressure counter-flowered of the second": […] .

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 [...].

• en passant

From passar.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [pəˈsan]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [pəˈsant]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [paˈsant]

passant m or f (masculine and feminine plural passants)

1. passing
2. (heraldry) passant

passant m or f by sense (plural passants)

1. passer-by

   Synonym: transeünt

2. tutor
3. an assistant to a lawyer or notary; law clerk

passant m (plural passants)

1. passing (moment something passes)
2. a procession of musicians

   Synonyms: passada, cercavila

• en passant

passant

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

   La botiga és només passant la cantonada.

   The shop is just around the corner

passant

1. gerund of passar

• “passant”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

From Middle French passant.

• Audio:

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• Hyphenation: pas‧sant

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.

2. a traveller in transit who is staying somewhere for a short period of time

• voorbijganger

• passantenhaven

Inherited from Old French passant.

• IPA^(key): /pa.sɑ̃/ ~ /pɑ.sɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

passant m (plural passants)

1. passer-by
   • 1836, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, chapter XXXV, in Louis Viardot, transl., L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche, volume I, Paris: J[acques]-J[ulien] Dubochet et C^ie, éditeurs, […], →OCLC:

     « 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.)

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

1. busy (as in a busy street)
   • 1997, Éric Faye, translated by Jennifer Wagner, Des nouvelles de l'entrée de l'enfer:

     Et depuis quand trainaît-il dans cette rue si peu passante?

     And how long had it been lying in this quiet street?

2. (heraldry) passant

• bande passante

passant

1. present participle of passer

• “passant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

passant

1. present participle of passer

• English: passant

passant

1. present active participle of passati (“to see”)