Dictionary

rite de passage en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌɹit də ˌpɑˈsɑʒ/ (General-American)
• /ˌɹiːt də paˈsɑːʒ/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Borrowed from French rite de passage, and attested later than rite of passage. The French term was coined by French ethnographer and folklorist Arnold van Gennep (1873–1957) and popularized in his work Les rites de passage (1909).

Meanings

1. Synonym of rite of passage.
   • it seems that the beginning of the decline of this traditional rite de passage should be traced back to the break effected by the Reformation, though the change also had sociological causes, notably the decline of the tightly knit community in which an individual death created an immediate void. 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 584:
   • Jayanta Mahapatra’s ‘Grandfather’ encapsulates a past hopelessly trapped in memories of the grandfather’s diary, dating back to the Great Odisha Famine of 1866. Torn, moth-eaten, it remains a prized possession; bringing history, memory and desire seamlessly together. A scroll of despair, the poem becomes a rite-de-passage. 2014 September 6, Sachidananda Mohanty, “A reader’s delight”, in The Hindu:
   • Our Fifth Congress, “A Time for Action” was indeed a rite de passage, a coming of age, for adolescent health, acknowledging that this is an important international issue, a universal and long-neglected cause. 1992 July, David Bennett, “Editorial: Adolescent Health—A Time for Action”, in Journal of Adolescent Health, volume 13, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Elsevier Science Publishing Co., →DOI, →ISSN, page 340:
   • Parents operate in a culture where views on teenagers and substances are hopelessly polarised. On one side, excess is a rite de passage undergone by all "proper" teenagers. 2002 January 15, Ros Coward, “The trouble with Harry”, in The Guardian:
   • It would not have been a rite de passage stricto sensu, but it would have encapsulated and condensed symbolically some of what the ephebate as a whole, the true transitional process or initiation, sought to achieve. 2005, Robert Parker, “The Festival Year”, in Polytheism and Society at Athens, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 210:
   • Stravinsky's wistful and brutal “Rite of Spring” has become a rite de passage for choreographers attracted to its rhythmic intricacies. 1977 April 5, Don McDonagh, “Ballet: Stravinsky ‘Rite of Spring’”, in The New York Times:
   • Males hoping for acceptance must undergo a perilous rite de passage. 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae:
   • An ailment can be a rite de passage, a childhood illness an essential preliminary to entry into adulthood. 1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 34:
   • For generations, the foreign exchange trip has been a rite de passage for British teenagers. True, we Brits rarely improved our language skills significantly as a result of a two-week stay with a continental European family. But we learned other, perhaps even more valuable, life lessons. 2008 June 26, Stuart Jeffries, “Vive la différence!”, in The Guardian:
   • I spent last year conducting an anthropological study of the British Humanist Association (BHA), an organisation which on first thought might not bring to mind a commitment to rites de passage. For the association, however, providing funerals to those who do without God is a major aspect of its work. 2012 May 14, Matthew Engelke, “What is a good death? Ritual, whether religious or not, still counts”, in The Guardian:

Forms

Synonyms

rite of passage