Went around something or avoided it by taking a different route, or ignored something that should have been dealt with.
From 'by-' (near, beside) plus 'pass' (to go). Literally meant going past something while staying beside the main route, then evolved to mean avoiding or ignoring.
The concept of 'bypass' became especially important in 20th-century medicine when doctors could surgically bypass blocked arteries, and in roads when cities built bypass highways—it's a word that perfectly captures modern life's obsession with finding workarounds instead of fixing root problems.
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