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🗪 Reversibility in language

30-Day Writing Challenge: 13/30

Looking into language and it’s structure sometimes yields interesting insights.

For example, compare the phrasal verbs ‘passing out’ and ‘passing away’.

The difference lies in the reversibility of ‘out’ and ‘away’.

If someone can pass out (i.e., become unconscious), they can pass in (not a real phrase, I think).

But, the phrase passing away shows irreversibility in the linguistic sense.