▪ I. person, n.
(ˈpɜːrs(ə)n)
Forms: α. 3–4 persun, 3–6 persone, (4 persoyne), 4–5 persoon(e, (5 persown), 5–6 persoun(e, personne, 4– person. β. 4 parsoun, 4–7 parson, 5–6 parsone, 6 parsonne.
[a. OF. persone (12th c. in Littré), mod.F. personne, a personage, a person, a man or woman, = Pr., It. perˈsona:—L. persōna a mask used by a player, a character or personage acted (dramatis persona), one who plays or performs any part, a character, relation, or capacity in which one acts, a being having legal rights, a juridical person; in late use, a human being in general; also in Christian use (Tertullian c 200) a ‘person’ of the Trinity. Generally thought to be related to L. personāre to sound through; but the long ō makes a difficulty. The sense mask has not come down into Eng.; and the other senses did not arise here in logical order, the earliest being 1, 2, 4 b, and 7. See also parson, a differentiated form of the same word.]
I. 1. A character sustained or assumed in a drama or the like, or in actual life; part played; hence function, office, capacity; guise, semblance; one of the characters in a play or story. (Now chiefly of the dramatis personæ or characters in a drama, and in phr. in the person of = in the character of, as representing.) † to put on a person, to assume a character (cf. personage 7 b). Also, persons of the drama [tr. dramatis personæ] lit. or fig.
The strict dramatic use does not appear in Eng. so early as the transferred use: cf. quot. 1590.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 126 Þe pellican..is euer leane... Dauid efnede him þerto in ancre persone, and ine ancre stefne. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xviii. 333 In my paleys paradys in persone of an addre, Falseliche þow fettest þere þynge þat I loued. 1538 Cdl. Pole in Strype Eccl. Mem. I. App. lxxxiv. 219 Never heard of the like in Christendom, against ony that bear that person, that I do at this time. 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 11 Whan as he speaketh vnder the parson of Phebus. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 107 They susteyne the persones of intercessours. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 62 He comes to disfigure, or to present the person of Moone-shine. 1600 ― A.Y.L. iv. i. 92 Well, in her person, I say I will not haue you. 1607 Lingua ii. iv, Hee's bold to bring your person vpon the Stage. 1608 [see personator]. 1653 Jer. Taylor Serm. for Year i. xxi. 278 No man can long put on a person and act a part, but his evill manners will peep through the corners of the white robe. a 1656 Hales Gold. Rem. (1688) 184 And put on a kind of surly and sullen Person, of Purpose to deter her. 1665 Lloyd State Worthies (1670) 14 To fit them by degrees for the person they are to sustain. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 542 ¶1 Had I always written in the person of the Spectator. 1779–81 Johnson L. P., Lyttelton Wks. IV. 313 The names of his [Lyttelton's] persons too often enable the reader to anticipate their conversation. 1803–6 Wordsw. Intim. Immort. vii, Filling..his ‘humourous stage’ With all the persons, down to palsied Age. 1895 G. B. Shaw Our Theatres in Nineties (1932) I. 39 The persons of the drama belong rather to the world of imagination than of reality. 1948 M. Sharp Flowering Thorn ii. iii. 72 Thus admitted, so to speak, among the persons of the drama, the young American rose to his feet. |
II. 2. a. An individual human being; a man, woman, or child. (In earliest use, The human being acting in some capacity, personal agent or actor, person concerned.)
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 316 Abuten sunne liggeð six þinges þet hit helieþ..person, stude, time, manere, tale, cause. Persone, þe þet dude þeo sunne, oðer mid hwam me dude hire. 13.. Cursor M. 26684 (Cott.) To tell þe nam o þat person es na man halden wit resun. 13.. Coer de L. 3317 Fyftene persons in Acres toun, He gaff hem clothis gret foyson. c 1340 Hampole Prose Tr. 11 The fifte comandement es þat thou slaa na man..And also here es forboden vn-ryghtwyse hurtynge of any persone. 1467 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 304 That this acte be not prejudicial ne hurt to no parson nor parsones. ? 1507 Communyc. (W. de W.) A iij, In Noes tyme bycause of synne..Saue viij. persones drowned were all. 1611 Bible Luke xv. 7 Ninety and nine iust persons. 1727 Fielding Love in Sev. Masques iii. x, There is a certain person in the world, who in a certain person's eye, is a more agreeable person than any person, amongst all the persons, whom persons think agreeable persons. 1827 Jarman J. J. Powell's Devises (ed. 3) II. 337 The bequest did not spring from a parent or person standing in the place of a parent. |
b. Emphatically, as distinguished from a thing, or from the lower animals. (Cf. 3.)
| 1481 Caxton Myrr. i. xiv. 43 Her [nature's] werke is alway hool..be it in persones or in bestes. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. xi. (1848) 233 My Opinions, whether of Persons or things, I cannot in most cases command my self. a 1713 Sprat (J.), A zeal for persons is far more easy to be perverted, than a zeal for things. 1766 Blackstone Comm. II. ii. 16 The objects of dominion or property are things, as contradistinguished from persons. 1893 Patmore Relig. Poet. 107 In every person who has a right to be called a person, as distinguished from an animal, there are two distinct consciences. |
c. A man or woman of distinction or importance; a personage. (Usually with qualifying word or words expressing this.)
(Outside English this was an earlier sense than 2.)
| c 1400 Rom. Rose 3202 On hir heed she hadde a crown, Hir semede wel an high persoun. 1579 Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 205 Johnne Cheisholme, comptrollar and secund persoun of the artailyeirie. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies v. viii. 348 If it were a person of qualitie, they gave apparrell to all such as came to the interrement. a 1648 Ld. Herbert Hen. VIII (1649) 154 Charles Duke of Bourbon, whom I find so considerable a Person at this time. 1672 Dryden Assignation i. i, A man of my parts and talents, though he be but a valet de chambre, is a person. 1769 Robertson Chas. V, vi. Wks. 1813 VI. 81 Immediately the chief persons in the state assembled. 1845 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 22 The Bishop..whose great popularity at Tours..made him a person of much consideration. |
d. Used contemptuously or slightingly of a man. Also, of a woman.
| 1782 F. Burney Cecilia vi. i, Do you suppose a young lady..would want to take advantage of a person in trade? Ibid. ii, Miss Beverley, if this person wishes for a longer conference with you, I am sorry you did not appoint a more seasonable hour for your interview. 1935 Punch 18 Dec. 678 This Pearl person has neglected to say whether [etc.]. 1939 Punch 23 Aug. 198/1 She was a sort of secretary person down at the works. |
e. young person: a young man or young woman (L. juvenis); now esp. used of the latter, when the speaker does not desire to specify her position as ‘girl’, ‘woman’, or ‘lady’.
| 1535 Coverdale Judith vii. 12 Then came the men and women, yonge personnes and children all vnto Osias. 1743 J. Morris Serm. vii. 181 Highly criminal in young persons. 1759 S. Fielding C'tess of Dellwyn II. 217 This young Person had been left at her Parents' Death. 1793 W. Roberts Looker-on No. 72 (1794) III. 125 There lived a young person at Loudun from whom he could not resolve to be separated. 1801 Lusignan I. 21 Her daughter, a young person of seventeen. 1820 Scott Monast. xviii, There be some flashes of martial spirit about this young person [Halbert Glendinning]. 1885 W. S. Gilbert Mikado i, They are not young ladies, they are young persons. 1893 F. H. Burnett One I knew best of all xv, The Small Person blushed, because she was of the Small Persons who are given to superfluous blushing. |
f. Used (a) as a substitute for man n.1 (esp. sense 4 p: also for boy n.1, etc.) as second element in numerous Combs. relating to offices which may be held by a member of either sex, as chairperson, salesperson; (b) with preceding defining word, as marketing person, and in other fanciful formations of this type, as henchperson.
In practice usually employed to avoid alleged sexual discrimination and widely regarded as having amusing connotations.
| 1971 Sci. News 11 Sept. 166 A group of women psychologists thanked the board for using the word ‘chair⁓person’ rather than ‘chairman’. 1971 Sci. Amer. Dec. 37/1 (Advt.), If there is any doubt at the counter, let him show the salesperson this ad. 1972 Listener 24 Aug. 232/1 Two young black women will almost certainly join Representative Shirley Chisholm in Congress..putting up the number of black ‘Congresspersons’ to at least 14. Ibid., Yvonne Brathwaite Burke..the stunning and extremely saucy ‘Vice-Chairperson’. 1973 Ibid. 1 Mar. 286/3 Chairperson Mitchell and her henchpersons looked at the way education brainwashes girls. 1974 Black Panther 23 Feb. 9/2 Brother Malcolm Kelley, chairperson for the Committee for Justice for Tyrone Guyton. 1976 ‘L. Black’ Healthy Way to Die ii. 19 You're a newspaperwoman—or, as we have to say in these days of female emancipation, a newspaper person. 1976 Publishers Weekly 16 Feb. 81/1 The author [sc. Jeanne Wilson] is a solid craftsperson who tells her old-fashioned story in a winning manner. 1976 Oxford Times 23 July 32 (Advt.), Builders' merchants require yardperson. 1976 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXIV. 510/1 The exercise known amongst marketing men, or should I say marketing persons, as market segmentation. 1977 Times Lit. Suppl. 29 Apr. 506/5 A pair of homosexual network anchorpersons. 1977 C. Sagan Dragons of Eden ii. 41 A group of literary Englishpersons, immobilized in the Alps by inclement weather. 1978 Amat. Photographer 29 Nov. 119/3 We saw nothing in cine to rival the spectacular application of high-technology design to still cameras for everyman (sorry, everyperson). |
g. With defining word, as cat person, dog person, etc.: one who is characterized by a preference or liking for the thing specified; a lover or enthusiast. (Used much as the combining form -phil, -phile.)
| 1971 ‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Doctor Bird i. 6, I am not..a ‘night person’, and had no desire to see a..niterie. 1976 T. Heald Let Sleeping Dogs Lie i. 23, I should say you're more of a cat person. Or even a parrot person. 1986 R. Littell Sisters ii. vii. 152 Millie is basically a dog person. |
3. In general philosophical sense: A self-conscious or rational being.
| 1659 Pearson Creed (1839) 436 All which words are nothing else but so many descriptions of a person, a person hearing, a person receiving, a person testifying. 1877 E. R. Conder Bas. Faith ii. (1884) 72 We can address God as a Person, and sustain..relations [with Him] such as are possible only between persons. |
III. 4. a. The living body of a human being; either (a) the actual body as distinct from clothing, etc., or from the mind or soul, or (b) the body with its clothing and adornment as presented to the sight of others; bodily frame or figure. Usually with of or possessive.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 652 (701) Troylus persone She knew by sighte and ek by gentillesse. c 1400 Destr. Troy 2139 To proffer our persons & our pure goodes, To venge of our velany and our vile harme. c 1460 Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. vi. (1885) 121 His highnes shall þan haue therfore a bouute his persone..lordes, knyghtes, and sqviers. 1526 Tindale Col. ii. 1 As many as have not sene my parson in the flesshe. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. ii. 202 For her owne Person, It beggerd all description. 1692 Dryden St. Euremont's Ess. 30 The Senate..sent to advise Pyrrhus to take care of his Person. 1732 Law Serious C. iv. (ed. 2) 61 It is very possible for a man that is proud of his estate..to disregard his dress and person. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. xxxi, It was her fortune, not her person, that induced me to wish for this match. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. i. iii, One of his advantages was a fine person. |
b. (With qualifying adj.) A human (or quasi-human) being considered in reference to bodily figure or appearance; a man or woman of (such and such) a figure. ? Obs.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 14913 ‘Alas!’ he sayde, ‘so fair mankynde,..So fare persones, so bright of ble.’ c 1386 Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 17 A fair persone he was and fortunat. 1539 Bible (Great) Gen. xxxix. 6 And Josep[h] was a goodly persone, & a well fauored. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 416. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 110 Belial, in act more graceful and humane; A faire person lost not Heav'n. 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1775) II. 137 (Maria), I asked her if she remembered a pale thin person of a man. 1797–1805 S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. V. 27 ‘What person of a man?’ ‘Very handsome, if he was not so pale.’ |
5. a. The actual self or being of a man or woman; individual personality. With of or possessive: his (own) person = himself; your person = yourself, you personally. † Formerly often used by way of respect: e.g. the king's person for ‘the king’.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. iii. 172 Þou knowest Concience, I com not to chyde, Ne to depraue þi persone with a proud herte. c 1386 Chaucer Wife's T. 305 Ffor gentillesse nys but renomee Of thyne auncestres,..Which is a strange thyng to thy persone. 1470–85 Malory Arthur i. xxi. 67 Ye are the falsest lady of the world and the most traitresse vnto the kynges person. 1523 Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) I. 37, I am so extremely desyrows that the noble parson yf [sic: ? of] my saide Prynce showlde tarry withyn Hys Realme. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. vii. §5 Traian..was for his person not learned. 1643 in Neal Hist. Purit. (1736) III. 35 The charge..shall..be either given to their persons, or left at their houses. a 1715 Burnet Own Time I. 368 His circumstances may deserve that his character should be given, though his person did not. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet ch. xxiii, Let me first..see your Majesty's sacred person, in such safety as can now be provided for it. 1853 Maurice Proph. & Kings ix. 148 Asserting the dignity of his own person, or at all events of his own office. 1876 Mozley Univ. Serm. iii. (ed. 2) 54 We observe..to begin with, that our bodies are not we,—not our proper persons. |
| fig. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. i. xv. 75 Robbery and Violence, are Injuries to the Person of the Common-wealth. |
† b. Expressing bodily presence or action; presence or action ‘in person’. Obs. exc. as in 11.
| 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxliii. (1482) 289 Whan they were y wedded..the kyng his owne persone brought and ladde this worthy lady to the bisshops place of wynchestre. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxx. (Percy Soc.) 146 Up than I went where as her person stode. 1557 Order of Hospitalls D iv b, The President..without his persoun, shall no waightie matters be determined or agreed on. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iii. x. 86 [They] do wrastle before his person two and two. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iii. iv. 128 How say'st thou that Macduff denies his person At our great bidding? [1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. ix. 309, I hope to be of service..with my troops and person.] |
IV. 6. Law. a. A human being (natural person) or body corporate or corporation (artificial person), having rights and duties recognized by the law.
| 1444 Rolls of Parlt. V. 75/1 And þey [the Master & Brethren of the Hospital] by that same name mowe be persones able to purchase Londez and Tenementz of all manere persones. 1475 Ibid. VI. 150/1 Any persone Temporell, corporat or not corporat. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v., A Writ that lies for Prebendaries, or other Spiritual Persons. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. i. 123 Natural persons are such as the God of nature formed us; artificial are such as are created and devised by human laws for the purposes of society and government; which are called corporations or bodies politic. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 188 A crowd is no distinct existence,..but if the same people be erected into a corporation, there is a new existence superadded; and they become a person in law capable to sue and be sued [etc.]. 1833 Act. 3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 74 §1 The word ‘Person’ shall extend to a Body Politic, Corporate, or Collegiate, as well as an Individual. |
b. Euphemistically, the genitals.
| 1824 Act 5 Geo. IV c. 83 §4 Every Person wilfully, openly, lewdly and obscenely exposing his Person in any Street, Road or public Highway, or in View thereof, or in any place of public Resort, with intent to insult any Female.., shall be deemed a Rogue and Vagabond within the true Intent and Meaning of this Act. 1853 Mr. Justice Maule in Law Jrnl. Rep. XXXI. iii. 123/1 What do you mean in law by exposing his person? The indictment should have been for exposing his private parts. 1911 Straits Times (Singapore) 13 June 7/3 He let go my arms, held me round the waist with his right arm and used his left hand. He stooped to do it. He put his hand on my person. 1973 R. E. Megarry Second Miscellany-at-Law ii. 165 Few readers of the newspapers can be unaware of the curious convention whereby for many years past the word ‘person’ was used anatomically in prosecutions for indecency. |
V. 7. Theol. a. Applied to the three distinctions, or modes of the divine being, in the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) which together constitute the Trinity. (Cf. essence n. 4 b, hypostasis 5, substance.)
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 55 For ðhre persones and on reed, On miȝt and on godfulhed. c 1315 Shoreham vii. 143 Wat may þe holy gost nou be? Persone þrydde in trynyte. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 14 The sam God..That woned ever in his godhede, And in thre persons and anhede. a 1425 Cursor M. 288 (Trin.) Þerfore he is þe trinite Þat is o god and persones þre. 1529 More Dyaloge i. Wks. 145/1 If y{supt} one beleued in all the thre parsones of the trinite, y⊇ father y⊇ sone & the holy gost. 1663–70 South Serm. (1727) IV. vii. 284 A Plurality of Persons, or Personal Subsistences in the Divine Nature, is a great Mystery, and so to be acknowledged by all who really are, and profess themselves Christians. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 188 The divine persons differ in another manner than human persons. 1833 J. H. Newman Arians ii. ii. (1876) 155 The mysteriousness of the doctrine evidently lies in our inability to conceive a sense of the word person, such, as to be more than a mere character, yet less than an individual intelligent being. Ibid. v. i. 365 The word Person which we venture to use in speaking of those three distinct and real modes in which it has pleased Almighty God to reveal to us His being. |
† b. Substance: = hypostasis 3. Obs. rare—1.
| 1548 Gest Pr. Masse in H. G. Dugdale Life (1840) App. i. 87 Semblable though the sayd body [of Christ] be presented in the bred, howbeit it is not become one person therwith. |
c. The personality of Christ, esp. as uniting the two natures, divine and human; = hypostasis 5 (d).
| 1562 Articles of Religion ii, Two whole and perfect Natures..were joined together in one Person. 1855 Lynch Lett. to Scattered ii. 34 Christianity shows itself in immense breadths of time and life, which imply Profundity in the Person of Christ. |
VI. 8. Gram. Each of the three classes of personal pronouns, and corresponding distinctions in verbs, denoting or indicating respectively the person speaking (first person), the person spoken to (second person), and the person or thing spoken of (third person); each of the different forms or inflexions expressing these distinctions.
[Gr. πρόσωπον in Dionysius Thrax; L. persōna in Varro.]
| 1520 Whitinton Vulg. (1527) 8 b, Y⊇ verbe shal be y⊇ fyrst persone. 1530 Palsgr. Introd. 27 This tong hath thre parsones in bothe the nombres of theyr verbes. Ibid., Euery substantyue is onely of the thyrde parson. 1672 Petty Pol. Anat. (1691) 97 The Quakers..speak to one another in the second Person and singular Number. 1764 W. Primatt Accentus Redivivi 111 The Dorians penacuted verbs ending ον,..that is, provided they were third persons plural. 1845 Stoddart in Encycl. Metrop. (1847) I. 62/1 In many Languages the person is necessarily expressed by a pronoun. This is universally the case in the Chinese,..the verb being alike in all the persons. c 1850 [see apocopate ppl. a.]. 1905 [see thou pers. pron. 2 b]. 1951 V. Nabokov Speak, Memory i. 17 In addressing me, a small boy, he used the plural of the second person. 1962 J. G. Bennett Witness xxv. 333 She never said ‘I’, but always referred to herself in the third person as ‘Madame’ or even ‘she’. 1966 J. Derrick Teaching Eng. to Immigrants ii. 89 The teacher must proceed slowly and patiently, and again has good reason for confining questions to 1st and 2nd person forms only at first. |
VII. 9. Zool. Each individual of a compound or ‘colonial’ organism, having a more or less independent life, and often specialized in form or function; a zooid.
| 1878 Bell Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. 117 In the Pennatulidæ..some, and at times many, persons in a colony are less well-developed. Ibid., 123 When the persons of a colony are dimorphic, those which are the more developed are at the same time those which are functionally sexual. |
VIII. Phrases and Comb.
10. in one's (own) person, formerly also in (one's) proper person (= L. in propriâ personâ): † a. = in person (see 11). Obs. b. In one's own character (not as representing another): see sense 1.
| a. [1292 Britton i. i. §1 Pur ceo qe nous ne suffisums mie en nostre propre persone a oyer et terminer totes les quereles del poeple. trans. Inasmuch as we are not sufficient in our proper person to hear and determine all the complaints of our said people.] 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 4958 For to sytte in dome in proper parsoun. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 443 Aftur þat a man deserves in his owne persoyne schal he be rewardid. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 5 The which noman in his persone Mai knowe. 1472–3 Rolls of Parlt. VI. 52/1 That the said John Myrfeld, Richard Ledys, and either of theym, in their propre persone and persones appere. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (1531) 13 He wolde be in his owne persone, the example of our hole iourney. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 375 They haue ofte intreated you, sometime by their Ambassadours, and somtime in their own persons. |
| b. 1692 Washington tr. Milton's Def. Pop. M.'s Wks. 1738 I. 503 Not such as the Poet would speak, if he were to speak in his own person. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 266 The poet is speaking in his own person. [See sense 1.] |
11. in person: with or by one's own action or bodily presence; personally; oneself.
| 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 631 King Iames..then beyng there in person. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. i. 127 (Quarto), You haue..made her serue your vses both in pwrse and in person. 1671 Milton Samson 851 Princes of my countrey came in person, Solicited, commanded, threatn'd, urg'd. 1748 Anson's Voy. ii. vi. 205 To return him thanks in person. 1782 Priestley Corrupt. Chr. II. x. 260 Charlemaigne excused the bishops from serving in person. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. II. ix. 310 Others crossed the sea in person. |
12. in the person of (in his or her person). a. In the character of, as the representative of, as personally representing. See sense 1.
b. Embodied or invested in; impersonated in; (as) personally represented by.
| 1582–3 Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 541 A power strange and unsufferabill to be in the persoun of ony inferior subject. 1678 Dryden All for Love Pref., Persecuting Horace and Virgil in the persons of their successours. 1809 Kendall Trav. I. vii. 60 The company still subsists in the person of the state. 1859 Tennyson Enid 216, I will avenge this insult, noble Queen, Done in your maiden's person to yourself. |
13. to accept († take), respect († behold, † look on) persons, or the person of any one: to look upon with favour, to favour, to show partiality, esp. on personal or improper grounds. (Scriptural.)
Person here represents L. personam of the Vulgate (which however has in some places faciem), the Gr. being πρόσωπον ‘face, countenance, person’, usually in the comb. προσωπολήπτειν ‘to accept the face of’, rendering Heb. nāsā' pānīm ‘to lift up or accept the face’ (prob. orig. to lift up the face of one prostrated in humility or supplication).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 19944 (Cott.), I se he [Petre] said..Þat godd, þat mad for us ranscun, Bihaldes noght mans persun. 1382 Wyclif Luke xx. 21 Thou takist not persoone of man, but thou techist in treuth the wey of God. ― Rom. ii. 11 For accepciouns of persoones [gloss, that is, to putte oon bifore another withoute desert] is not anentis God. 1535 Coverdale 1 Sam. xxv. 35 Behold I haue herkened vnto thy voyce, and accepted thy personne [Vulg. honoravi faciem tuam]. ― Ps. lxxxi. 2 How longe wil ye geue wronge iudgment & accepte the persounes of the vngodly? 1539 Bible (Great) Acts x. 34 There is no respecte of parsones wyth God [Vulg. Non est personarum acceptor Deus; 1382 Wyclif not acceptour of persoones; Rhem. not an accepter..; 1526 Tindale God is not parciall; 1611 God is no respecter of persones]. [See also accept v. 2, accepter, acception 2, respect n. and v., respecter.] |
14. Comb. a. person-object, (a) Gram., a personal object of a verb; (b) in psychoanalytic theory, the choice of a person as the object of one's libidinal energy; also attrib.; person-oriented a., of that in which interest or concern is centred on the person as contrasted with (by implication) a theory or thing; person-perception, perception which leads to or constitutes awareness and understanding of another person or persons.
| 1647 Fuller Good Th. in Worse T. (1841) 132 When we are time-bound, place-bound, or person-bound. 1873 M. Blind tr. Strauss' Old Faith & New xlii. 169 The impersonal but person-shaping All. 1928 H. Poutsma Gram. Late Mod. Eng. (ed. 2) I. i. iii. 176 It will, therefore, often be useful to distinguish person-objects and thing-objects. Even when both objects, considered apart from the context, are the names of things, one of them more or less distinctly suggests, through its connexions, thoughts of personal qualities. 1949 M. Mead Male & Female vii. 154 The distinction between mother's body and the own body..in person-object terms, is an important one. 1954 Essays in Crit. IV. 316 The pre-Hellenic nature cults are accused..of failing to own that the person-to-person drive must push on past the person-object situation to find a response which plays back. 1958 Tagiuri & Petrullo (title) Person perception and interpersonal behaviour. Ibid. p. x, We propose using the term person perception whenever the perceiver regards the object as having the potential of representation and intentionality. 1964 M. Argyle Psychol. & Social Probl. iii. 36 Person perception has been made the object of considerable research. 1964 E. Becker in I. L. Horowitz New Sociol. 123 The schizophrenic is..someone who has been accustomed to relating to symbol-objects rather than to person⁓objects. 1967 M. L. King Jr. in Freedomways VII. 114 We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. 1972 Encycl. Psychol. II. 336/1 An object of experience, especially a ‘person-object’. 1972 Jrnl. Social Psychol. LXXXVI. 135 The concept of dependency has been used..to describe person-oriented behavior. Ibid. LXXXVI. 23 Accurate person perception is repeatedly identified as an essential component of effectiveness in the research literature concerned with interpersonal functioning. 1973 J. Lyons Experience iv. viii. 241 Its major practitioners [sc. of encountering], who are likely to be ex-theologians, teachers, counselors, actors..—whatever field can furnish perceptive, person⁓oriented leaders—rather than formally trained psychotherapists. |
b. With a period of time, as person-day, person-month, units equivalent to one day, month, of one person's work or life. Cf. man n.1 20 b.
| 1970 Sci. Amer. Feb. 91 In that year people in California spent some 235 million person-days in specified outdoor recreational activities, primarily swimming, picnicking, fishing and boating. 1975 Nature 30 Oct. 733/2 Under an agreement signed recently in Stockholm, scientists and experts from the two countries will exchange visits of 10 person-months a year. |
Senses 2 f, g in Dict. become 2 g, h. [II.] [2.] [b.] For def. read: Emphatically, an individual as distinguished from a thing, a type, or an animal; esp. one regarded by society etc. as having (the right to) human dignity, personality, or responsibility. (Later examples.)
| 1929 W. Faulkner Sound & Fury 106 That was when I realised that a nigger is not a person. 1946 Federal Suppl. (U.S.) LXV. 140/2 Why a ‘part’ of the mother under the law of negligence and a separate entity and person in that of property and crime? 1963 M. L. King Strength to Love (1964) viii. 64 We are responsible human beings, not blind automatons; persons, not puppets. 1970 M. Sarton Jrnl. 11 Nov. (1973) 57 Women are at last becoming persons first and wives second. 1987 Sunday Express Mag. 7 June 18/3 Now I feel I've got a future and that I'm a person. |
f. With indefinite article: any person, anyone whatsoever, one(self). colloq.
Usu. replacing the first-person pronoun, with the intended effect of distancing the speaker from the action.
| c 1784–5 W. Blake Island in Moon iv, in Compl. Writings (1972) 48 ‘What! don't you like to go to church?’ ‘No’, said Mrs Nannicantipot. ‘I think a person may be as good {oqq}at home{cqq}.’ 1790 J. Woodforde Diary 1 Apr. (1927) III. 180 It was very cold indeed all the Day with a strong Easterly Wind. It cut through a Person. 1908 W. B. Yeats Unicorn from Stars iii. 100 It makes a person be thinking of the four last ends, death and judgement, heaven and hell. 1951 F. Loesser Adelaide's Lament 3 in Guys & Dolls, If she's getting a kind of a name for herself and the name ain't ‘his’—A person can develop a cold. 1978 L. Duncan Killing Mr Griffin xv. 195 You know your mother, she never leaves a single penny anywhere, and a person does get hungry sometimes for a little something sweet. |
[g.] (c) without preceding word: an individual of either sex, esp. (in advertisements for staff, etc.) one viewed as a potential employee.
| 1977 Evening News (Worcester) 26 Aug. 14/3 (Advt.), Person required for general cleaning duties in car showroom. 1978 G. Vidal Kalki vii. 172 Can she get a cleaning woman or person for less than three dollars and fifty cents an hour to help her homemake? 1988 Weekend Nation (Barbados) 15 Jan. 24/1 (Advt.), Wanted immediately. A responsible person to manage a beauty salon. |
▪ II. † ˈperson, v. Obs. rare.
[f. prec.: cf. late L. persōnāre to represent.]
= personate v. 5.
| 1643 Milton Divorce ii. xiv, Or let us person him like some wretched itinerary Judge. |
Restrict Obs. rare to sense in Dict. and add: 2. = man v. 4. Freq. joc.
Usu. intended as an alternative that avoids sexual discrimination.
| 1972 Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 5 Aug. 6/3 Anne Wexler..talks about the child-care centers.., how they had been ‘manned on a full-time basis’. ‘You mean personned on a full-time basis,’ quips a male..reporter in a surprising burst of feminism. 1978 ‘A. Garve’ Counterstroke i. viii. 28, I had visited Scotland Yard only once before... There was a long counter, personned by two very presentable young policewomen. 1981 Washington Post 15 Feb. d14/2 ‘That was Ron,’ said Linda Willis, who was personing the phones at Cee-J's bait store. 1987 Daily Tel. 19 Oct. 18/6 Computers at the Stock Exchange might not all be working due to insufficient staff to ‘person’ them. |
▪ III. person
obs. form of parson.