Passion

There are two main current meanings of the noun passion. Both are derived from Latin pati, past participle passus, 'to [be able to] bear hardship', 'to suffer or endure'.

• As a proper noun, The Passion refers most specifically to the sufferings of Jesus in his last days: arrest, trial, scourging, crucifixion and death. This can be (in a common Christian phrase) "the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ", or more allusively to a narrative of these days. Collectively, they form Passion Week, the week immediately preceding Easter Sunday, in the Church year. This is also called Holy Week. There is a symbolic legend attached to the Passion flower, which links its name to the Passion of Jesus.
  • In music, these narratives are most commonly the two choral works by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), the St John Passion (1724) (BWV 245) and the St Matthew Passion (1727, revised 1736) (BWV 244).
  • In literature, these may be any of
    • the accounts in the four Gospels, or
    • various Passion Plays, re-enactments dating back to the Middle Ages of the crucifixion and the events leading up to it. The texts of several of these survive in France, Germany and Italy, the most famous being that performed by the village of Oberammergau in Bavaria every ten years, since 1634 in fulfilment of a vow made during an outbreak of the plague the previous year: the Oberammergauer Passionsspiel.
      • In American journalism, a passion play is used for any event that arouses strong emotion.
    • The Passion of the Christ is a film of the events of Passion Week. The text is spoken in the languages contemporary with Jesus: Latin, Aramaic and Hebrew, with sub-titles in English.
  • In earlier times, Christian sources commonly refer to the sufferings and deaths of martyrs as their passions. A highly-esteemed French silent film (1928) about Saint Joan was called La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc).
• As a common noun, passion is 'any strong emotion, felt to be out of control'. This is most commonly used about rage, temper, anger etc ("he flew into a passion" commonly means 'he became violently angry', 'he lost his temper'), or sexual desire or love. Here the adjective passionate is probably more common nowadays, as in such phrases as "passionate kisses", or "mad, passionate love". Two extensions may be noted here:
  • The object of [sexual] desire may be called '[the lover's] passion'. In the slang of many girls' boarding schools, this was abbreviated to pash. It often meant 'a crush' - an older girl that the younger looked up to, admired and formed a keen emotional bond with. It became extended to many of the emotional attachments that young people can form with idealized 'partners': girls or boys might form a pash for a film star, with no hope even of meeting that person.
  • A passion can, in a more abstract way still, be an enthusiasm - a [political] goal, or a hobby embraced with more than usual whole-heartedness, or a favourite food, etc, for example. One may have a passion for chocolate; Dickens had a passion for social justice; fishing is a passion with some men.