To catch up with and pass someone or something moving ahead; to surpass or exceed.
Compound of 'over' (beyond) and 'take' (to seize). Used in Old English with the sense of catching up to something, later applied metaphorically to surpassing in achievement.
In British English, 'overtake' is the standard word for passing a car on the highway, while Americans use 'pass'—this simple vocabulary difference reflects deeper cultural and language divergence between countries that split less than 300 years ago.
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