Passim
A Latin note in a citation meaning 'in various places throughout the cited work'.
Passim is a Latin adverb meaning 'here and there' or 'scattered throughout'. In scholarly citation it is used when the writer wants to point the reader to an idea that runs through a source but is not tied to any single page — 'see Grafton 1997, passim' means the theme discussed is developed across the whole book, not at a specific location.
The device is honest about a specific problem: some arguments simply are not confined to a page or a chapter. Rather than list twenty page numbers, or pretend the case for a thesis lives at page 42, passim tells the reader: the whole book is the citation.
It should be used sparingly. A citation is a promise that the reader can find and check the claim. Passim weakens that promise, so the more precise the reference the better. Best practice is to combine — 'see Grafton 1997, 3–14, and passim' — which gives the reader a place to start reading and admits the theme continues.
Common mistake: using passim to conceal not having found the exact reference. If the writer knows the page, cite the page. Passim is for arguments genuinely distributed across the work, not for arguments the writer has not bothered to locate.
“See Foucault, Discipline and Punish, passim, on the productive nature of power.”
Keep reading the glossary
A citation shorthand meaning 'in the same source as the previous note'.
A citation shorthand meaning 'in the work already cited'.
Latin for 'and others' — used in citations of multi-author works.
A formal reference that lets a reader locate the source of a quote.