🏈 A thrower 🚶 A bystander 🎭 A pretender

passer

1 9.9

A person who pretends to belong to a different race to avoid unfair treatment

noun
/ˈpæsər/

: persona que se hace pasar por miembro de otra raza

During the protest, some passers-by joined the demonstration in solidarity with the cause.

Examples

We trudged our way down the road towards the Anaconda Lodge, reputed to rent one-room bungalows to passers-through.

Blog text (23)
The artist displayed his work on the street, hoping to attract passers-by who would appreciate his talent.
As the rough draft was displayed, valuable feedback came from passers-by who stopped to share their thoughts.

Synonyms

imposter

vspasser

41 5.1

A person who pretends to be someone else to trick people and get money or other benefits

claims a different ethnic identity mainly to avoid discrimination rather than for gain

poser

vspasser

Offensive

26 8.0

A person who pretends to be someone they are not to fit in

claims a different ethnic identity mainly to avoid discrimination

Compounds

passer-by

7 3.6

A person who is walking past a place by chance

laissez passer

Formal

1 9.9

An official document that lets a person travel or enter restricted areas

forward passer

5.6

A player in American football who throws the ball forward to move it down the field

genus Passer

Specialized

9.9

A group of small birds that includes common sparrows like the house sparrow

Passer montanus

Specialized

9.8

A small brown sparrow with a chestnut crown and a black cheek spot

Surface Forms

passer singular

passers plural

Morphology

passer = pass (opaque) = pass + er

Although it contains 'pass' + '-er', the sense of socially 'passing as' a different group is specialized and not predictable from the base verb alone.

Etymology

Passer also comes from the verb pass, which can mean 'to be accepted as' or 'to go through' a border or line. A helpful way to remember the social sense is to think of a passer as someone who 'passes' into another group to be accepted or to avoid harm.