Other forms: passengers
A passenger is anybody riding in a vehicle who is not driving it. In the seat beside the driver, or in row thirty.
The word belongs to every kind of transport, giving us the passenger seat, a passenger train, passenger numbers. It carries no responsibility, which is exactly what makes the figurative use so cutting, since calling a team member a passenger means they are being carried by everybody else. That use is common in sport. The related word is passage, and both come from the idea of passing through.
1nounpassengerA person travelling in a vehicle without driving or working on it.
“The passenger in the front seat was asleep.”
2nounmemberA member of a team who contributes nothing.
“He was a passenger for most of the second half.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Old French
passagier
English, today
passenger
From Old French passagier with intrusive n (see etymology of messenger).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA