Etymology

rite of passage

rite of pass·age

Today it means: A ceremony or series of ceremonies, often very ritualized, to celebrate a passage or transition from one stage of a person's life to another. Full definition →

French rite de passage
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The story

  1. French · calque ofrite de passage
  2. English todayrite of passage

From rite + of + passage, a calque of French rite de 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).

Words from the same roots

Frenchrite de passage all →

rite de passage

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.