The history of the word passenger, meaning “someone on some sort of conveyance,” is a bit surprising. In the 1300s, a passager was the pilot of a ferry, not one of the other people on board. Later passager acquired what linguists call an intrusive N or parasitic N, and came to apply instead to the people being transported. A similar phonetic process gave us the words messenger, which was originally messager, and scavenger, originally scavager. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “The Origins of the Word “Passenger””
I learned something interesting about the word passenger the other day. Back in the 1300s, the word passenger referred specifically to the pilot of a ferry, you know, a boat that’s going back and forth over a body of water. And the original word was passenger, you know, someone who travels along a passage on a boat or ship. And then in the 1400s, it was also applied to a person who passes by or through a place, you know, somebody who’s a traveler. And then that word passenger acquired what linguists call an intrusive N or the parasitic N. So it went from passenger, that is someone making a passage. And in the early 1500s, people were using the word passenger as we know it today.
Oh, that’s so interesting.
So the N just is a phonetic intrusion. There’s no etymological source for it.
Well, yeah, and the same thing happened with messenger and scavenger.
Oh, interesting.
I love it.
Yeah.
I love it.
It’s just something that happens when you say a word enough. It just, it wants an in there.
Yeah, it wants that N.
And I was just so surprised to learn that it wasn’t somebody who was being conveyed on a boat. It was the person steering the boat who was the passenger.
Lovely, lovely.
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