At the airport

The list for a journey that has its own vocabulary, and one word on it does a second job English never gave its own. Le passager is the passenger. But passager is also an ordinary adjective meaning short-lived, passing: une averse passagère is a passing shower, un malaise passager a brief dizzy spell, une mode passagère a fad. The thread is the same in both — something that goes past rather than stays — and the traveller is simply the person doing the passing. It also explains a phrase that looks odd otherwise: un passager clandestin is a stowaway, somebody passing through without being seen. English « passenger » is only ever the person; for the adjective it reaches for « passing », « temporary » or « fleeting », none of which is related to it.