Word definition: person

Etimology


From Middle English persoun, personne et al., from Anglo-Norman parsone, persoun et al. (Old French persone (“human being”), French personne), and its source Latin persōna (“mask used by actor; role, part, character”), perhaps a loanword from Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask”). In this sense, displaced native man, which came to mean primarily "adult male" in Middle English; see Old English mann. Doublet of parson and persona.

noun


person (plural persons or (by suppletion) people)

An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being. [from 13th c.]

The physical body of a being seen as distinct from the mind, character, etc. [from 14th c.]

(law) Any individual or formal organization with standing before the courts. [from 14th c.]

(law, euphemistic) The human genitalia; specifically, the penis.

(grammar) A linguistic category used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance and those to whom or about whom they are speaking. See grammatical person. [from 14th c.]

(biology) A shoot or bud of a plant; a polyp or zooid of the compound Hydrozoa, Anthozoa, etc.; also, an individual, in the narrowest sense, among the higher animals[19th century].

Examples


THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Perſons of the firſt diſtinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ſeveral new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and diſtinguiſh it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.

“A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. […]”

Each person is unique, both mentally and physically.

[…] his firſt appearance vpon the Stage, in his new perſon of a Sycophant or Iugler […]

How different […] is the same man from himself, as he sustains the person of a magistrate, and […] that of a friend!

[…] to beare rule, which was thy part / And perſon, had’ſt thou known thy ſelf aright.

No man can long put on a person and act a part.

three persons and one God

Jack's always been a dog person, but I prefer cats.

I was able to speak to a technical support person and get the problem solved.

[…] when the young Ladies laughed at her for it, ſhe replied that it was not his perſon that ſhe did embrace and reverence, but the divine beauty of his Soule.

The Captain, inclining his military person, sat sideways to be closer and kinder […].

At first blush it seemed that what was striking about him rested on the fact that his dress was exotic, his person foreign.

Meanwhile, the dazed Sullivan, dressed like a bum with no identification on his person, is arrested and put to work on a brutal Southern chain gang.

At common law a corporation or a trust is legally a person.

[E]very Person wilfully, openly, lewdly, and obscenely exposing his Person in any Street, Road, or public Highway, or in the View thereof, or in any Place of public Resort, with Intent to insult any Female ... and being subsequently convicted of the Offence for which he or she shall have been so apprehended, shall be deemed a Rogue and Vagabond, within the true Intent and Meaning of this Act ...

True corms, composed of united personae […] usually arise by gemmation, […] yet in sponges and corals occasionally by fusion of several originally distinct persons.

Related words


synonyms

See also Thesaurus:person

hyponyms

advance person

businessperson

cameraperson

chairperson

common person

congressperson

draftsperson

first person

foreperson

houseperson

layperson

newsperson

nonperson

ombudsperson

people person

person of interest

repairperson

salesperson

second person

spokesperson

stick person

stuntperson

tadpole person

third person

unperson

VIP

verb


person (third-person singular simple present persons, present participle personing or personning, simple past and past participle personed or personned)

(obsolete, transitive) To represent as a person; to personify; to impersonate.

(transitive, gender-neutral) To man, to supply with staff or crew.

Examples


Or let us perſon him like ſome wretched itinerary Judge, […]

“Okay. Soon as Natalie heard, and while she was flailing around trying to turn up a Valium, she decided she had better call Scott Harrison and ask his opinion on what sort of advice, re legal moves, she ought to call back to Iréné, or Rama, or Wilkerson, or whoever’s personning the fort back there.” / “Whoever’s whatening the fort?” / “Please. […]”

Thank you to the many who helped the festival succeed : […] Kevin and Mary Jannsen, for tireless work including the initial survey, soliciting raffle donations, selling tickets, personning the raffle booth during the festival, etc.

And I sat at the counter and watched the cooker cat personning the griddle with one hand and the grill with the other.

We had hit the iceberg, and it was time to person the lifeboats.

I was just mulling over the merits of working the fryer at McDonald’s versus personning the complaints desk at Wal-Mart when I took a right onto the dirt road leading to New Millennium Bible Camp.

We went so far as to stop in a hotel on the way out of Speyer — to ask for directions — but the teenaged girl personing the desk there seemed to be such an idiot […]

In fact, so inebriated were they that they could barely move, and, neither nest nor wheel being personned, the ship was as usual careening wildly across the main.

Data provided by Wiktionary