En Passant
/ɒ̃ pɑˈsɒ̃/A special pawn capture of an opposing pawn that has just moved two squares past it.
If an opposing pawn advances two squares and lands beside your pawn (as though trying to slip past unnoticed), you may capture it as though it had only moved one square. The French name — "in passing" — describes exactly this fleeting, easily-missed capture opportunity.
Etymology
En passant is French for "in passing," and the rule is named for exactly what it captures: a pawn that tries to "pass" an enemy pawn by using its initial two-square advance, only to be caught as though it had moved just one square instead. French contributed several of chess's procedural terms in this way during the era when French was the dominant language of European high culture and games; en passant, along with j'adoube and en prise, entered English chess vocabulary directly rather than being translated, and all three remain in common use in their original French form to this day, even in languages that otherwise translate most chess terminology into their own vocabulary.
Translations
| Language | Term | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Arabic | الأخذ في المرور (al-akhdh fi al-murur) | Fully translated: "the taking in passing." |
| Dutch | en passant loanword | |
| French | en passant | Native French phrase; the rule's origin language. |
| German | en passant loanword | French phrase kept unmodified, as in English. |
| Italian | en passant / presa al varco loanword | Both the French loan and a native Italian phrase are used. |
| Polish | bicie w przelocie | Fully translated: "capture in flight/passing." |
| Portuguese | en passant loanword | French phrase commonly kept unmodified. |
| Russian | взятие на проходе (vzyatiye na prokhode) | Fully translated rather than borrowed: "capture in passing." |
| Spanish | captura al paso | Sometimes the French phrase en passant is used directly instead. |
| Turkish | geçerken alma | Fully translated: "taking while passing." |