Since when 'passes away' means 'dies'?

The OED cites this reference from 'around 1375':

   Lay Folks Mass Bk. (MS. B.) 112 Good lord graunt.. rest and pese that lastis ay to cristen soules passed away.

Presumably the phrase came into use before it was written down.

I found a few paragraphs that speak to it at Wikipedia under: Euphemisms. Scroll down to Euphemisms of Death (shudder.) It discusses how it was once thought that to say the word death was to invite it. Other related topics are also covered.

Since people started passing into the other realm...thus the passage.

It dates at over a hundred years because my 90 yr old neighbor said her mom taught her to say it instead of "die".