1624 Go Wondering

I like how new terms sort of insinuate themselves into our language. Stuff you never thought you'd hear maybe, or new ways of saying old things.
Like people don’t disappear anymore. They "go missing." Or they "went missing." Really? Do we need all the extra verbiage? Going missing sounds like they had some choice in the circumstances. I went to the store. I go to the store. I'm active about the matter. Or he goes to the store. But he goes missing?
Or when people die these days, they don't just die. Nor, apparently, in these fairly agnostic times do they go to meet their maker. Always seemed like that would be a great final dis to a prominent atheist. A eulogy he couldn't do anything about. "He went to meet his maker."
Or I suppose they could say his soul went missing to meet his maker.
Anyhow, people used to pass away. Now they just pass.
"Heard from you dad lately?"
"He passed last Monday night."
"Really, is he a football player?"
To me, the "away" in "pass away" makes it more deathlike. Saying someone passed makes it sound more like the soul is some noxious smelling bodily gas.
I heard another odd word the other day in the news reports about Andy Rooney's passing. They said he was pre-deceased by his wife in 2004. Pre-deceased as a verb. What will they think of next?
How about "Mr. Rooney's wife of 50 years died in 2004." Knowing it's 2011, we'll figure out the pre-deceased part.
And if the people who have died before have pre-deceased me will the people who survive me post-decease me?
I'm just hoping that when I'm actually dead they'll say I went passing.
America, ya gotta love it.