"Passed". "Passed away". "Passed on". When did it become verboten to say 'died"?

[MineralMan]

33. I say "died." However, when speaking to those who are grieving, I

refer to their loss, instead, or to their grief. They need no reminders of what has occurred. They already know the fact.

If they want to use other words, I have no problem whatever with that. I can find many ways to refer to their grief that don't even mention the actual death. There's no need to remind them.

It's complicated, really. People have different beliefs with regard to death. I'm able to accommodate any of those beliefs in others.

I've met people who insist in using the words "died" and "dead" when speaking about someone's loss of life. Such people seem to think it's important to use the word, for some reason. Sometimes, it's even done in a hurtful way, knowing that those words make the pain more sharp for their listeners. Why would someone do that? Very rarely is the actual event needed to be mentioned. Expressing sympathy and concern does not require a direct reference to it.