rite de passage

English

Etymology

From French rite de passage.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹiːt də paˈsɑːʒ/

Noun

rite de passage (plural rites de passage)

1. (chiefly anthropology) A rite of passage. [from 20th c.]
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 584:

     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.

   • 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae:

     Males hoping for acceptance must undergo a perilous rite de passage.

   • 1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 34:

     An ailment can be a rite de passage, a childhood illness an essential preliminary to entry into adulthood.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁit də pa.saʒ/

Noun

rite de passage m (plural rites de passage)

1. rite of passage