VOCABULARY AND FORUM EUPHEMISM FOR TO DIE

 

1. 
   It depends. There are many euphemisms for to die.
   
   He bought the farm.
   He kicked the bucket.
   He passed.
   He passed away.
   He passed over.
   He passed on.
   He bit the dust.
   
   There are many too numerous that many can come up with, I'm sure. Sometimes just to say, "He died," is blunt, and people will use, "He passed away," as a softer way to say the same thing. I would not use some of the other examples I have given you if you are trying to be sensitive--except the ones that have the word passed in them.

2. Let me give the usage in my environment.
   Very close to the event, if you are talking seriously, and usually you are because death is a serious matter, no euphemism is appropriate. 
   He died. 
   Simple, stark, real.
   
   Some time later, some of the euphemisms creep in.
   I expect you could work out which would be used when speaking to the widow of the deceased.
   
   When talking almost frivolously about dying, when there is no real personal connection with the concept of death, more frivolous expressions are used.

If you know the family well and know that they take their religion seriously the common euphemism is, "She has gone to be with Jesus/God/Her Maker etc." Aside, if you want to get a good feel for this question and the answers get a hold of an English newspaper and read the obituaries. Generally, they are written by someone in the family and what you read there is the way the family likes it.

Americans seem to have a general aversion to plain speech where dying is concerned.
I agree with panj that "he died" is simple and real, and thus appropriate in serious talk
about a person who has just recently died.

Some other common AE terms (serious), all heard at funerals:
Has left us
Has gone to his maker (old-fashioned)
Is in a better place
Was taken from us

Less serious terms:
Started a worm farm (See the E.E. Cummings poem, "I had an uncle named Sol...")
Is pushing up daisies
kicked the bucket

In IE (and possibly BE), another serious way of communicating the death of a loved one might be:

"I lost my Dad last night."

A quite formal phrase is:

"He departed this life...." (tends to be typically associated with death notices, obituaries, and eulogies.)

A very literary expression is:

"He shook off this mortal coil..."

Some variations on a couple of Cuchuflete's earlier suggestions are:

"He bought the farm." (non-formal expression)
"He has gone to meet his maker." (Formal, and somewhat old-fashioned.)

For me, euphemisms have their place. They can go a long way towards softening the blow of a devastating bereavement.

I'm another of the "call a spade a spade" brigade. The person died. Euphemisms - some of them! - are tolerable in limited circumstances. The only one I feel comfortable with is "passed away".

Some of the others are ripe for funeral gags, comedy films etc: we lost my father last weekend (scope for jokes about carelessness); so and so has just left us (which makes it sound like he just got up and walked out of the room).

I quite like Gwan's "gone to sleep" (sometimes with "and never woke up"), or "sleeping with the angels now" for someone who died in infancy.

The (understandable) desire to be sensitive in the immediate aftermath of a family's bereavement, and the resultant abundance of euphimisms to avoid saying the D-word, reminds me of the quandary a lot of people have about whether it is irreverent or disrespectful to stand on, or walk over, someone's grave. Like they're going to care.

In a real-life situation, I would take my cues from those most closely affected by the bereavement i.e. if they said "he passed away" I wouldn't charge in and say "oh so he's dead!". But personally, I dislike them.

Is antipodean bluntness an unfair stereotype, or is fair to say that you and your Australian neighbours don't worry as much as, say the Americans about political correctness?

That's just the contrary for me. I think saying ''die'' directly sounds a bit harsh. Maybe it depends on the culture in which I live. We mostly say ''His father has passed away'' rather than ''has died''.