Word of the Day

Saturday, July 13, 2002

pari passu

\PAIR-ee-PASS-oo; PAIR-ih-PASS-oo\ , adverb;

At an equal pace or rate.

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Quotes:

Expand the state and [its] destructive capacity necessarily expands too, pari passu.

-- Paul Johnson, Modern Times: The World From the Twenties to the Eighties

Independent hedge funds can sell their holdings in a stock all at once, but if a hedge fund is part of a mutual fund company, it generally must sell pari passu . . . with the company's mutual funds that hold the same stock, constraining flexibility.

-- Geraldine Fabrikant, "Should You Bristle at These Hedges?", New York Times, November 8, 1998

Origin:

Pari passu literally means "with equal step," from Latin pari, ablative of par, "equal" + passu, ablative of passus, "step."