▪ I. people, n.
(ˈpiːp(ə)l)
Forms: α. 3–6 peple; (3–5 pepule, 4–6 -ul, 5–6 -ull(e; 4–5 pepille, 4–6 -ill, 5–6 -il; 5 pepylle, 5–6 -yll; 6 Sc. peiple, 7 peeple). β. 4–5 poeple, (5 -ul), 5– people, (5 peopel, -ull). γ. 3–5 puple, (5 pupile, -ill, -yll, -ull); 4–5 peuple. δ. 4–5 pople, (4 -ille, 5–6 -il).
[a. AF. poeple (Britton), people (Rolls of Parlt.) = OF. pople, poeple, pueple, peuple, puple = Pr. poble, pobol, Sp. pueblo, It. popolo:—L. populum, acc. of populus the people, the populace.]
1. A body of persons composing a community, tribe, race, or nation; = folk 1. Sometimes viewed as a unity, sometimes as a collective of number. a. In singular, as a collective of unity.
| [1292 Britton i. Introd., Edward..Roi de Engleterre..Desirauntz pes entre le poeple qe est en nostre proteccioun.] 1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 1089 So..ȝe ben by-set in an yle, Þat þer may comen in ȝour kiþ non vnkouþe peple. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints ii. (Paulus) 461 Þu [Rome] art digne callit to be now haly folk and pepill chosyn. Ibid. iv. (Jacobus) 16 Þis James,..þe wa can ta to spanȝe..þat puple to cristyne treutht to brynge. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 180 Til so befell,..That god a poeple for himselve Hath chose. a 1400–50 Alexander 3412 Ilk a pepill his possession in pes moȝt he broweke. 1562 Winȝet Cert. Tractatis i. Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 7 Setting vp ane peple heidles left of God. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. King & no K. i. i, I were much better be a king of beasts Than such a people. 1835 Lytton Rienzi ii. vi, Rienzi addressed the Populace, whom he had suddenly elevated into a People. 1852 Tennyson Ode Wellington 151 A people's voice! we are a people yet. 1862 Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. v. 87 Whatever history exists is the history of a man,..but not of a people. |
b. In
sing. form, construed as a plural.
| 13.. Cursor M. 7323 (Cott.) Omang þir puple [G., Tr. þis folk, F. þaire folk] sal þou latt A stalworth man þat saul haitt. 1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 4 Þere wilde contre was wist & wondurful peple, Þat weren proued ful proude. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa Introd. 41 Ouer against which cape..do inhabite the people called Bramas. 1611 Bible Isa. viii. 19 Should not a people seeke vnto their God? 1653 Holcroft Procopius i. 13 This people are Christians,..and have..been subject to the King of Persia. 1857 Buckle Civiliz. I. xiii. 745 Every people worthy of being called a nation possess in their own language ample resources for expressing the highest ideas. |
c. pl. peoples, nations, races (
= L.
populi,
gentes).
Peoples of the Sea: name given in Egyptian records of the 19th and 20th Dynasties to various sea-borne migrant peoples who invaded and settled parts of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. See also
Sea Peoples s.v. sea n. 23.
This plural form was avoided in 16th c. Bible versions, and by many 17th and 18th c. writers: see d. It was thought to require defence or explanation even in 1817 and 1830.
| c 1374 Chaucer Former Age 2 A Blysful lyf,..Ledden the poeples in the former age. 1382 Wyclif Rev. x. 11 It behoueth thee eftsoone to prophecie to hethen men, and to puplis [Tindale to Geneva people, Rhem., 1611, R.V. peoples], and to langagis, and to many kingis. [So xvii. 15 in the same versions.] 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas ii. i. (1554) 33/b, Obedience..combineth the true opinions In hertes of peoples. 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utop. i. (1895) 26 So manye strange and vnknowne peoples and countreis. 1582, 1611 [see 1382 above] Before nations and peoples. 1639 Fuller Holy War v. xiii. (1840) 266 Saladin answered him, that he also ruled over as many peoples. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. v. i. (1848) 298 A Throne, to which above an hundred other Peoples paid homage. 1778 R. Lowth Transl. Isa. xxxiv. 1 Draw near, O ye nations, and hearken; And attend to me, O ye peoples! 1806 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. IV. 218 The moral habits of the several peoples of the earth. 1817 G. S. Faber Eight Dissert. (1845) I. iii. ii. 208 Gen. xlix. 10..people. In the original Hebrew the word is plural. If therefore the delicacy of our ears be offended by the uncouth sound of peoples: let us at least..substitute the more euphonic word nations. 1830 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) I. 261 To say ‘The Representative of the peoples’ [as trans. Le Représentant des Peuples] would not be under⁓stood at all. Such, however, is the idiom of the original. 1853 Whewell Grotius II. 2 The peoples who had been under his authority will be their own masters. 1864 H. Spencer Princ. Biol. ii. viii. §80 I. 241 The characters of neighbouring peoples. 1877 Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. ii. 345 All our English-speaking peoples. 1906 J. H. Breasted Hist. Egypt vi. xxiii. 477 The restless and turbulent peoples of the northern Mediterranean, whom the Egyptians designated the ‘peoples of the sea’, were showing themselves in ever increasing numbers in the south. 1950 H. L. Lorimer Homer & Monuments v. 150 On the monuments of Ramses III the most conspicuous of the Peoples of the Sea, the Shardana and Pulesati, are uniformly represented with round shields with single hand-grips. 1973 K. A. Kitchen in D. J. Wiseman Peoples Old Testament Times iii. 57 The Lukka..appear as raiders in the Amarna letters c. 1370 b.c., as Hittite allies against Ramesses II at Kadesh c. 1286 b.c., and then in Libya with Libyans and others in the first attack by ‘Peoples of the Sea’ on Egypt, repulsed by Merenptah c . 1220 b.c. |
† d. In the sense ‘nations’ the form
people was also used unchanged: constantly so for the
Gr. and
Heb. pl. in Tindale and Coverdale and other 16th c. Bible versions founded on them (but not in Rhem.); nearly always so in Geneva, and in 1611 (where the Revisers of 1881–5 have uniformly substituted
peoples). Also in many 18th c. writers.
| 1526 Tindale Luke ii. 31 For myne eyes have sene the saveour sent from the Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people [τῶν λαῶν; so Coverd. to Geneva, and 1611; Wyclif peplis, v.r. puplis; Rhem. and R.V. peoples]. 1535 Coverdale Ps. lxvi[i]. 3 Let the people prayse the (O God), yee let all people prayse the. [So other versions to 1611; Wyclif puplis, R.V. peoples.] ― Dan. iv. 1 Nabuchodonosor kynge, vnto all people, kynreddes and tunges [Wyclif peplis, v.r. puplis, 1611 people, R.V. peoples]. 1567 Gude & Godlie B. Ps. ii. (S.T.S.) 85 All natiounis..The Kingis, and the peple, with ane consent, Resistis the, thy power and thy gloir. 1611 Bible Isa. ii. 4 Hee shall iudge among the nations and shall rebuke many people [Wyclif puples, R.V. peoples]. 1625 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. xiii. (1635) 214 Letters and discipline were first borrowed from the easterne people. 1793 Jefferson Writ. (1859) IV. 20 It will prove that the agents of the two people [the U.S. and France] are either great bunglers or great rascals. |
e. transf. Of animals (in
quot., after the
Vulg. and
Heb.).
Cf. folk 1 b.
| 1382 Wyclif Prov. xxx. 25 Amptis, a feble puple, that greithen in rep time mete to them [1388 Amtis, a feble puple; 1535 Coverdale, The Emmettes are but a weake people; 1560 (Genev.), The pismires a people not strong; 1611 The Ants are a people not strong]. |
2. a. The persons belonging to a place, or constituting a particular concourse, congregation, company, or class. Construed as
pl. As said of a congregation or body of worshippers, it sometimes approaches the sense of ‘lay people’, ‘laity’: see 4 b.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 8651 (Cott.) All folud him,..O þe peple [F. poeple] of ilk tun. c 1330 Amis & Amil. 2101 Child Amoraunt stode the pople among. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 56, I font þere Freres..Prechinge þe peple. c 1400 St. Alexius (Laud 622) 563 Ffor liȝttynges grete, & þonder blast, Wel sore þe poeple was agast. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxlii. (1482) 282 Was ther a rumour..that kyng Richard come to westmynstre, and the peuple of london ranne thyder. 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Morn. Prayer, Then shalbe read ii. lessons distinctely with a loude voice, that the people maye heare. 1632 Lithgow Trav. v. 184 Monasteries, the people whereof..liue vnder the order of Saint Basile. 1711 Mrs. Long in Swift's Wks. (1841) II. 477, I wish..you would make a pedigree for me; the people here want sadly to know what I am. 1739 Gray Lett., to Ashton 21 Apr., The Abbés indeed and men of learning are a People of easy access enough. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xii. III. 163 The people of Cavan migrated in one body to Enniskillen. |
† b. As
collective sing. A body or company of persons; a company, a multitude. Also with
pl. Obs.| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1655 The paleys ful of peples vp and doun, Here thre, ther ten. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 82 He spilleth many a word in wast That schal with such a poeple trete. c 1400 Destr. Troy 1034 He [Hercules] Assemblid of Soudiours a full sadde pepull. c 1449 Pecock Repr. iv. viii. 464 Whenne the Peplis weren clepid to gidere to him. 1482 J. Warkworth Chron. (Camden) 8 He..gaderyd a grete peple of menne. 1535 Coverdale 2 Chron. xxx. 13 There came together vnto Ierusalem a greate people, to kepe the feast of vnleuended bred. 1662 tr. Schol. to H. More's Antid. Ath. iii. ix. §2 (1712) 171 Who..affirms that Witches have no more to do with the Devil than other wicked peoples. |
c. People of the Book: a body or community whose religion entails adherence to a book of divine revelation,
spec. [
tr. Arab. Ahl al-Kitāb] Jews and Christians as regarded in Muslim thought.
| 1834 A. Burnes Bokhara I. x. 313 The Vizier took a cup, and said, ‘You must drink with us; for you are people of the book, better than the Russians.’ 1861 J. M. Rodwell tr. Koran 635 O people of the Book! now hath our Apostle come to you to clear up to you The cessation of Apostles. 1885 T. P. Hughes Dict. Islam 280/2 Kitabi, a term used for one of the Ahlu 'l-Kitāb, ‘the people of the Book’, or those in possession of the inspired word of God, as Jews or Christians. 1900 ‘Odysseus’ Turkey in Europe v. 178 According to strict [Muslim] theology, Jews and Christians are called ‘People of the Book’ (Ehlu-'l-kitab), and enjoy a position superior to that of heathen polytheists. a 1936 Kipling Something of Myself (1937) viii. 224 It is true the Children of Israel are ‘people of the Book’, and in the second Surah of the Koran Allah is made to say: ‘High above mankind have I raised you.’ 1959 [see Kitab]. 1967 Guardian 19 June 8/3 It..pains me, as it pains most Jews, when ‘the people of the book’ are compelled to wield the sword. 1976 Y. Menuhin in D. Villiers Next Year in Jerusalem 334 A love of improvisation..has never been lost to the people of the Book. 1977 B. Gascoigne Christians v. 106 Jews, Christians, Muslims..are all, in the powerful phrase of the Koran, ‘people of the book’. |
3. Persons in relation to a superior, or to some one to whom they belong. Chiefly with possessive.
a. The lieges or subjects of a king or other ruler, spiritual or temporal; the subjects or servants of God, of Christ, or of a Saint (
quot. c 1450) considered as their personal sovereign or lord; the parishioners of a parish priest or parson, the congregation or ‘flock’ of a pastor, etc. Const. as
pl.| [1292 Britton i. v. §2 En despit et damage de nous et de noster poeple.] a 1300 Cursor M. 18371 Þou es þe lauerd..of hele, Til all þi peple for to bring Vte of thralhed til þi chosling. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 4 Beseching [God]..to send yow prosperite and many ȝeris, to the comfort of alle youre loving peple. 1444 Rolls of Parlt. V. 8/1 Y⊇ King..havyng compassion of his peoples compleynt. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 5231 Þe pepil of þe saynt Fledd away with þair gude, And to durham all þai ȝode. 1556 Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden) 31 For cruelnes that he dyd unto hys perys and hys pepull. 1611 Bible Dan. ix. 26 The people of the Prince that shall come, shall destroy the citie. 1733 Pope Ess. Man iii. 214 'Twas Virtue only..A Prince the Father of a People made. 1851 Tennyson To the Queen vi, She wrought her people lasting good. Ibid. ix, Some august decree, Which kept her throne unshaken still, Broad-based upon her people's will. 1897 Queen Victoria Message 22 June, From my heart I thank my beloved people. May God bless them. 1902 K. Edward VII Let. to his People 7 Aug., The prayers of my People for my recovery were heard. |
| transf. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 182 Who [king bee] must himselfe also bee depriued of his wings, if he bee to busie headed, and will alwaies be carriing his people abroade. |
b. The body of attendants, armed followers, retainers, retinue, workpeople, servants, slaves; also (now less usual), crew (of a ship), troops, soldiers, ‘men’ (in relation to their officers). Const.
pl.| 13.. Coer de L. 1652 Also Robert Tourneham Gret peple with hym cam. 13.. K. Alis. 1032 (Bodl. MS.) All þe innes of þe toun Hadden litel foysoun Þat day þat com Cleopatras So mychel poeple wiþ her was. c 1450 Merlin xxviii. 566 The kynge Bandemagn assembled his peple that he hadde xxml. 1568 Grafton Chron. I. 42 And on a tyme goyng on huntyng, when he had lost his people, he was destroyed of Wolues. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Mien, Il est des miens, he is one of my seruants, people, followers. 1679 Claverhouse Let. Earl of Linlithgow 1 June, I mad the best retraite the confusion of our people would suffer. 1745 P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 51 Commissioned the Trial's prize..with the same Commander, Officers and People. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xii, The Douglas people are in motion on both sides of the river. 1847 G. R. Gleig Battle of Waterloo ii. xxx. 245 Throughout this magnificent advance the Duke was up with the foremost of his people. 1856 Olmsted Slave States 659 Vegetables for the family, and for the supply of ‘the people’. |
c. Those to whom any one belongs; the members of one's tribe, clan, family, community, association, church, etc., collectively;
esp. in public-school and university, and hence in general colloquial parlance. One's parents, brothers and sisters, or other relatives at home.
people-in-law, the relatives of one's wife or husband (
colloq.). Const. as
pl.| 1382 Wyclif Gen. xxv. 8 Abraham..was deed in a good elde..and he was gaderyd to his puple [1611 was gathered to his people]. 1474 Caxton Chesse ii. ii. 27 And so a Quene ought to be chaste, wyse, of honest peple. 1822 C. Lamb Let. 23 Dec. (1935) II. 356, I rather grudge that S[outhe]y has taken up the History of your People. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville III. 246, I have taught him the language of my people. 1851 Carlyle Sterling ii. vi. (1872) 139 Mrs. Sterling and the family had lived..with his Father's people through winter. 1886 Hist. Sk. Foreign Missions Seventh-Day Adventists 20/1 Eld. Lindermann after a time became estranged not only from our people but also from a large share of those whom he had been instrumental in leading to the observance of the Sabbath. 1890 Walford Havoc of Smile 11 Youths whose ‘people’ are so sure to be met with in Piccadilly. 1894 M. Dyan All in a Man's K. (1899) 262 John and I went down into Devonshire, for me to be introduced to my people-in-law, you know. 1897 M. Pemberton in Windsor Mag. Jan. 267/2 A sense of freedom from the narrower control of home and people. 1900 F. von Hügel Let. 7 July (1931) 86 But, as to the Preface, he says he would, on the one hand, even selfishly like to do so, to prevent the book seeming to appear without any support or knowledge of any of our people. 1902 Eton Glossary 25 Boys always speak of their relations as ‘their people’. This of course is not by any means restricted to Eton. a 1905 Mod. (Oxonian) ‘I shall have my people up at the Eights’. 1916 A. Huxley Let. 7 Aug. (1969) 109 I've arranged to be with my people in the country during August. 1971 ‘M. Innes’ Awkward Lie viii. 133 You know about my wife's people. 1977 Belfast Tel. 28 Feb. 3/7 She used to collect it [sc. silver paper] for the Multiple Sclerosis people, but they don't take it now. |
4. a. The common people, the commonalty; the mass of the community as distinguished from the nobility and ruling or official classes. Const. as
pl. Cf. man of the people s.v. man n.1 18.
| [1306 Rolls of Parlt. I. 219/1 Pur eux & le Poeple aprendre de la foi Dieu, & faire oreisons.] c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 127 To London þei him [Henry] brouht with grete solempnite. Þe popille him bisouht þer kyng forto be. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 35 Seuene persones whos dedes me writeþ in stories, þat beeþ, kyng in his rewme, knyȝt in bataile, iuge in plee, bisshop in clergie, lawefulman in þe peple, housbond in hous, religious man in chirche. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 317 If I among the poeple duelle, Unto the poeple I schal it telle. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) Pref. 2 Assemblee of þe pople [MS. C peple] withouten lordes þat may gouerne þam es as a flokk of schepe þat has na schepe⁓hird. c 1489 Caxton Blanchardyn xxxi. 116 Amonge the knyghtes & pepyll of Tourmaday. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iii. iii. 35 Our People, and our Peeres, are both mis-led. 1650 Nicholas Papers (Camden) I. 198 The People in England are universally discontented with the daily new Taxes imposed on them. 1771 Junius Lett. lix. (1772) II. 264, I speak to the people as one of the people. a 1854 H. Reed Lect. Eng. Lit. vii. (1878) 225 He caught the ear of the people by using the people's own speech. 1879 M. Arnold G. Sand Mixed Ess. 339 The people is what interested George Sand. And in France the people is, above all, the peasant. 1900 J. Hollingshead According to my Lights 5 Thackeray..was not so well known in the streets as Charles Dickens—he was not so much of a ‘people's man’. 1953 E. Simon Past Masters iv. ii. 229 Which of them is the scion of the upper classes and which the son of the people? 1969 A. G. Frank Latin Amer. xx. 328 The bourgeoisie develops at the cost of exploiting the people. 1973 Freedomways XIII. 11 In China, India, the Soviet Union, even in the pre-Nazi Germany of 1932 Robeson traveled, acted and sang and everywhere he met with the people. 1973 Black Panther 17 Nov. 9/3 If the people (and when I say ‘the people’ I mean the oppressed people) control Malcolm X University, if they control it without reservation or without having to answer for what is done there or who speaks there, then Malcolm X University is progressive. 1976 M. J. Lasky Utopia & Revolution (1977) xiv. 496 One of the essential preconditions of the establishment..of a revolutionary tradition and its associated components of utopian hope and militant temper is the creation of ‘The People’ as a political factor. 1977 Private Eye 13 May 14/3 It.. won't encourage the people to work any harder. |
b. the people is sometimes contextually equivalent to ‘the lay people’, ‘the laity’, as distinguished from the clergy; although in most such cases it can be explained as
= ‘the congregation’ (sense 2), or ‘the parishioners’ or ‘flock’ (sense 3), in relation to the priest, clergyman, or minister.
| 1362, 1548–9 [see sense 2]. 1548–9 Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion, Then shall the Prieste [1552 minister] firste receiue the Communion in both kindes himselfe, and next deliuer it to other Ministers,..and after to the people. a 1633 G. Herbert Countrey Parson vi, Both Amen and all other answers which are on the clerk's and people's part to answer. 1879 Simmons Lay Folks Mass Bk. Introd. 18 The Church..having appointed simultaneous but separate devotions for the priest and people. |
c. (Usu. with capital initial.) The prosecution in a law case as designated in certain States of the
U.S.A., the equivalent of the Crown in a British law case.
| 1801 Cases of Pract. Supreme Court New-York, 1791–1800 34 Ludlow ads. The People. 1810 Rep. Cases Supreme Court New-York II. 301 The People against Olcott. 1849 New York Superior Court Rep. III. 193 J. McGay for the defendant, cited The People v. Koeber. 1898 Misc. Rep. Courts of Record New York XXV. 599 The People of the State of New York, Respondent v. Irving Mulkins, Appellant. 1926 Michigan Rep. CCXXX. 485 People v. Lorde. The people's testimony tends to show that..the defendant..went to the store of one John Kay. 1936 E. S. Gardner Case of Stuttering Bishop xiv. 210 You may proceed..with the testimony in the preliminary hearing in the case of People versus Julia Branner. 1960 California Reporter 1959 I. 245/1 People of the State of California, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. One 1952 Mercury 2-door Sedan..Defendant, Gregorio H. Nunez, sole owner of the above described vehicle, Respondent. 1973 N.Y. Law Jrnl. 4 Sept. 4/7 The prosecutor mentioned that he had provided defense counsel with pre-trial statements made by the People's witnesses. |
5. Politics. The whole body of enfranchised or qualified citizens, considered as the source of power;
esp. in a democratic state, the electorate. Also used in the possessive (
spec. in the terminology of Communism and Socialism) to designate institutions and concepts which are regarded as belonging to, derived from, or benefiting the people considered as the source of power or the basis of society. See also sense 9 below.
| [c 1412 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 2886 Ffor peples vois is goddes voys, men seyne.] 1646 T. Edwards Gangræna iii. 15 That all Power, Places, and Offices that are just in this Kingdom, ought only to arise from the choise and election of the people. 1648–9 Jrnl. Ho. Comm. 4 Jan., The Commons of England, in Parliament assembled, do Declare, That the People are, under God, the Original of all just Power. 1692 Washington tr. Milton's Def. Pop. M.'s Wks. 1738 I. 516 Under the word People, we comprehend all our Natives, of what Order and Degree soever; in that we have settled one Supreme Senate only, in which the Nobility also, as a part of the People..may give their Votes. 1792 Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) II. 243 It is not possible to say, to the people or to the sea, so far shalt thou go and no farther. 1809 Kendall Trav. I. vii. 50 An example, I believe solitary in the statutes, of the use of the word people as a body possessed of civil rights. 1811 Weekly Reg. 7 Sept. 9/2, I will attach myself, as an editor, to no party but the People's Party, whose wish is ‘peace, liberty and safety’. 1834 J. J. Strang Diary 3 Mar. in M. M. Quaife Kingdom of St. James (1930) 218, I find myself nominated on what is called the people's ticket for constable. a 1849 E. Elliott ‘God save the people’, When wilt Thou save the people, O God of mercy, when? 1854 C. Fox Let. 21 Nov. in Jrnls. (1972) 217 F. Maurice was much cheered by the good beginning of his People's College. 1859 Mill Liberty i. 12 The will of the people..practically means, the will of the most numerous or the most active part of the people;..the people consequently may desire to oppress a part of their number. 1884 Spectator 2 Aug. 998/2 He also accused the Government of not trusting the people, of shrinking from an appeal to the people. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. (1890) I. xxiii. 328 The supreme law-making power is the People, that is, the qualified voters, acting in a prescribed way. 1896 Rep. on Labor Movement U.S.A. to Internat. Socialist & T.U. Congr. 2/2 The Socialist Labor party is steadily advancing, the so-called ‘People's party’..is not less steadily passing out of sight. 1900 [see above, sense 4.]. 1927 H. Dobbs in Lett. Gertrude Bell II. 558 On the part of the Opposition, now definitely constituted under the name of the People's Party, with Yasin Pasha as leader, doubts were expressed as to the advantage to Iraq of the extension of the 1922 Treaty for 25 years. 1942 Ann. Reg. 1941 16 A number of pacifists, including leading Communists, announced that they were organising a ‘People's Convention’ to demand ‘a People's Government’ which should bring the war to an end. 1953 Encounter Nov. 69/1 Looking over into East Berlin, one could see only a group of six People's Police in their new grey uniforms. 1958 Listener 30 Oct. 682/2 The policy of adventure and provocation of People's China. 1958 Ibid. 25 Sept. 452/1 Lloyd George was forty-six when he introduced his ‘People's’ Budget. 1958 [see co-operative B. 2 b]. 1959 Exchange (N.Y. Stock Exchange) Aug. 2/1 Today we have 12,490,000 [shareholders] plus an estimated 1.4 million owners of private corporations. We have the most broadly owned, most dynamic people's capitalism ever seen on the face of the earth. 1961 Sunday Bull. (Philadelphia) 15 Jan. i. 5/1 Pianist Svyatoslav Richter..has been given the Soviet Union's top artistic award: ‘People's Artist’. 1966 R. E. Pickering Himself Again xxii. 162 This must be Bratislava. I had escaped from Hungary into Czechoslovakia... Already I imagined my stubborn silence in a windowless room with the People's Police. 1966 ‘H. MacDiarmid’ Company I've Kept v. 148 Gaeldom, but for the English, gave good promise many centuries ago of evolving an ideal ‘people's state’. 1969 C. Davidson in Cockburn & Blackburn Student Power 331 The classless society of America's ‘people's capitalism’. 1972 Buenos Aires Herald 4 Feb. 9/4 In Buenos Aires, police continued the hunt for the ‘People's Revolutionary Army’ (ERP) extremists who staged the record robbery of over 400 million old pesos at the National Development Bank. 1973 Black Panther 21 July 7/1 Elaine Brown,..the first, genuine People's Artist America has produced. 1974 L. Deighton Spy Story xviii. 197 It took a long time before the Russians would let the D.D.R. have submarines. But the People's Navy are all ten-year men. 1974 tr. Snie{cbreve}kus's Soviet Lithuania 108 In recent years, an important form of ideological education—the people's universities—has become widespread. 1975 New Yorker 28 Apr. 99/1 When I asked one economist what models the Chinese revolution might provide for Vietnam, the man stared at me for a few moments.., and then said, ‘Well, what would you suggest? The Cultural Revolution? People's Communes?’ 1977 K. Benton Red Hen Conspiracy xviii. 143 He'd have to set up..what we call a people's prison to hold the Sheikh safely. |
6. a. Men or women indefinitely; men and women; persons, folk. Construed as
pl. In
phr. of all people, an expression suggesting that no one more surprising could be involved.
| 13.. Sir Beues (A.) 2275 Þre kinges and dukes fiue His cheualrie adoun ginneþ driue, And meche oþer peple ischent. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 7 Þe moste parti of þe peple þat passeþ nou on eorþe. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iv. xxiii. 69 Lycence is nought easy to gete Spyrytes for to speken to dedely people. 1482 J. Warkworth Chron. (Camden) 5 Whereof the most peple were sory. 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. vii. 33, I haue bought Golden Opinions from all sorts of people. a 1617 Hieron Penance for Sin xv. Wks. 1619–20 II. 233 They become on a sudden to be (as it were) other kind of persons and people then before they were. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 293 The City was so depopulated, that there were not people enough left to fill the sixt part of it. 1705 Stanhope Paraphr. I. 59 A Nature which cannot bear its own, and much less other Peoples Burden. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 36 ¶3 ‘There are Some People who fancy, if Other People—’ Autumn repartees; ‘People may give themselves Airs; but Other People, perhaps, who make less ado, may be, perhaps, as agreeable as People who set themselves out more’. 1837 Dickens Pickw. iv, The scene of action, towards which crowds of people were already pouring from a variety of quarters. 1851 S. Spencer Let. 1 May (1912) 410 The Times yesterday contained some fine tho' rather enthusiastically loyal verses about the opening of the Exhibition by Thackeray of all people. 1922 Chesterton Man who knew too Much, Why should you, of all people, be so passionate about it? 1965 Radio Times 2 May 15/2 Stan and Ollie..cause some hilarious surprises when Stan becomes Lord Paddington with Ollie of all people as his manservant. |
b. Often with defining words, where the singular has the distinctive
man or
woman:
e.g. alms-people, applicable to
alms-men or
alms-women, or to both; so
coloured people,
country-people,
labouring people,
lay-people,
towns-people,
working people,
work-people,
old people,
young people;
people of colour,
people of quality, etc. For these, when specific, see the qualifying element.
good people, formerly a courteous form of addressing an assemblage:
cf. good a. 2 c.
| 1429 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 336/2 An hole Disme of your lay poeple. 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 5 We finde yonge people be moche improvydent. 1554 Chron. Q. Jane (Camden 1850) 56 Good people, I am come hether to die. Ibid. 57, I pray you all, good Christian people, to beare me witnesse that I dye a true Christian woman. 1625 Purchas Pilgrims ix. xii. §2 They hold that Monkies in times past were men and women, and call them in their language ‘The old people’. 1667 Pepys Diary 10 Apr., No more people of condition willing to live there. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 148 Freely..eaten by People of Quality. 1766 Goldsm. Elegy Mad Dog 1 Good people all of every sort, Give ear unto my song. 1879 Simmons Lay Folks Mass Bk. Introd. 18 It was a congregational service in which the lay people took their part in their own tongue. 1899 Scribner's Mag. XXV. 76/1 From daybreak..foot-people and carriages began to take up a position on the downs. |
c. emphatically.
= Human beings.
| c 1450 Merlin 534 Ffor thei be no peple as other be, but it be fendes of helle,..ffor neuer mortall man myght do that these haue vs don. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xvii. (Arb.) 191 Raskall is properly the hunters terme giuen to young deere, leane and out of season, and not to people. Mod. There were some sheep in the field, but no people. |
d. transf. Living creatures.
poet. or
rhet.
| a 1667 Jer. Taylor Serm. (1678) ii. xiii. 90 Joynts of a dead Man..fit for nothing but for the little people that creep in Graves. 1821 Shelley Hellas 523 We saw the dogfish hastening to their feast. Joy waked the voiceless people of the sea. 1899 G. Jekyll Wood & Garden vii, The flitting of butterflies, the hum of all the little winged people among the branches. |
e. An individual, a person.
U.S. colloq.| 1926 J. Black You can't Win ix. 105 He's good people and I want to get him fixed up for a cell with the right folks. 1934 Detective Fiction Weekly 28 Apr. 113/1 ‘Stick yer four-bits in yer shoe’, he snorted, ‘I'm people.’ 1949 ‘N. R. Nash’ Young & Fair i. ii. 14, I guess she's people of good heart. 1956 B. Holiday Lady sings Blues (1973) x. 98 A lot of creeps have been dogging Orson Welles ever since but they can't touch him. He's a fine cat... And a talented cat. But more than that, he's fine people. |
7. Unemphatically,
people becomes quasi-pronominal (
cf. a man,
man n. 4 g), equivalent in the nominative to F.
on,
Ger. man, but having a corresponding objective and possessive;
e.g. ‘people say that he is extravagant’, ‘cabs waiting to bring people back’, ‘to give people what they want’, ‘one who can read people's thoughts’. In this sense
people has in colloquial use taken the place of
men (‘men say’, etc.); but in early
ME. the people (
= F.
l'on) seems to have had a similar use.
| c 1275 On Serving Christ 62 in O.E. Misc. 92 Þer he þolede pyne as þe peple me tolde. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. ii. 214 Ac marchantz..apparailled hym as a prentice þe poeple to serue. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 266 A man may liue as quiet in hell, as in a sanctuary, and people sinne vpon purpose, because they would go thither. 1600 ― A.Y.L. ii. iii. 5 Why are you vertuous? why do people loue you? 1606 ― Ant. & Cl. i. i. 54 Wee'l..note The qualities of people. 1696 Prior Secretary 16 But why should I stories of Athens rehearse, Where people knew love, and were partial to verse? 17.. Swift Misc. (J.), People were tempted to lend by great premiums and large interest. 1843 J. H. Newman Lett. (1891) II. 425 People cannot understand a man being in a state of doubt. 1871 Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. i. Carlyle (1878) 163 Excess, on the other side, leads people into emotional transports. |
8. attrib. and
Comb., as
people-organ,
people-pleaser,
people-worship;
people-blinding,
people-born,
people-centred,
people-devouring,
people-oriented,
people-pestered adjs.;
people-king [
tr. L.
populus rex, F.
peuple-roi], a sovereign people;
people mover, any of several means of conveying people from one place to another;
people power, (
a) physical effort exerted by people, as
opp. to machines, etc.; (
b) political or other pressure exercised (or
app. exercised) by the people,
esp. through the public demonstration of popular opinion;
people sniffer, a device that can detect the presence of a person by chemical analysis of the air around him (see also
quot. 1977);
people-state, a democracy.
| 1822 R. Pollok in D. Pollok Life 151, I saw no *people⁓blinding farce kept up. |
| 1968 Guardian 5 Aug. 6/6 The interests of Africa will be best served..by a *people-centred system, and African socialism is that system. 1970 Ibid. 23 Dec. 7/4 There is such a gulf between books that are system-centred and those that are people-centred. |
| 1848 Buckley Iliad 9 A *people⁓devouring king art thou. |
| 1796 Burke Regic. Peace i. Wks. VIII. 113 That Great Britain should..bid with the rest, for the mercy of the *people-king. 1813 tr. Pouqueville 125 In the estimation of these barbarians, the name of Romans, of the people-king, is equivalent to that of vassal or slave. 1822 T. Mitchell Aristoph. II. p. vi, A dramatic tetralogue, developing, in the author's peculiar manner, his idea of a people-king. 1866 Motley in Corr. (1889) II. 239 A Hapsburg is not like a People-King, which cannot, save by annihilation, die. |
| 1971 J. P. Romualdi in Science Year 1972 375 A ‘*people mover’, a vehicle smaller than a streetcar..will provide continuous service between the old campus in town and the new campus in the suburbs. 1972 N.Y. Times 1 June 30/1 Henry Ford 2d announced yesterday that the Ford Motor Company would build rapid-transit systems based on its driverless, rubber-tired people mover system being demonstrated at the Transpo '72 exhibition here. 1974 Times 22 Mar. (Buses Suppl.) p. i/2 Magnetic levitation, vacuum tubes, vertical take-off aircraft, and small-scale automatic and semi-automatic ‘people-movers’ of all kinds for urban situations. |
| 1851 Mrs. Browning Casa Guidi W. i. 814 This..teacher will..build the golden pipes and synthesize This *people-organ for a holy strain. |
| 1970 New Society 5 Mar. 392/2 They exhibited the familiar *people-oriented value-pattern detected many times among prospective teachers. 1975 Nature 27 Nov. 286/1 What more logical project for a rebuilt people-oriented science programme than to attempt to predict earthquakes. |
| 1557 N. Grimalde Lover to his Dear 15 in Tottell's Misc. (Arb.) 97 *Peeplepesterd London lykes thee nought. |
| 1579–80 North Plutarch (1657) 31 He..remaineth now no more a King or a Prince, but becometh a *People-pleaser, or a cruell tyrant. |
| 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 25 Sept. 17/1 Kiceniuk figures it will take a ground speed of 19 or 20 m.p.h. to get the craft airborne with *people power. 1983 Washington Post 4 Sept. a31 Leaders of the People Power Party..agreed on the overriding objective of restoring free democratic process. 1984 Times 4 July 12/4 Dr Tony Gibson..a long-standing proponent of Quaker ideals and what he calls ‘people power’. |
| 1965 Daily Tel. 5 Oct. 22/8 A person being examined is placed in a ‘*people sniffer’, a glass cylinder, and an analysis of the outgoing air discloses the chemical make-up of the subject. 1968 N.Y. Times 18 Aug. i. 3 United States troops refer to the gadget as the ‘people sniffer’. It leads American officers here in the Mekong delta to enemy hide-outs by ‘sniffing out’ the kind of ammonia odors given off by the human body. 1973 Times 24 Jan. 8/6 There has been use of the Manpack Personnel Detector, or ‘people-sniffer’—picking up the enemy by the smell of his sweat. 1977 Time 2 May 44/1 Their principal piece of equipment is a ‘people sniffer’, an electronic sensing device developed to catch the prowling Viet Cong. Despite its name, the instrument actually detects the minute seismic vibrations caused by a person walking. |
| 1605 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iv. Captains 1200 The *People-State, the Aristocracy, And sacred Kingdom, took authority A-like from Heav'n. |
| 1881 C. Wordsw. in Overton & E. Wordsw. Life (1888) 332 A general fête of *people⁓worship, by the people themselves. |
9. Special combs. with
people's (chiefly in sense 5):
people's army, (
a) an army organized on egalitarian or communist principles; (
b) an army composed of the common people;
People's Bureau, the official name for a foreign embassy of the Libyan Arab Republic;
people's car, an inexpensive motor car designed for popular sale;
people's choice, a popular favourite;
People's Court, (
a) a court set up by the Nazi regime in Germany to deal with political offences; (
b) a court in the Soviet and similar legal systems; also
transf.;
people's democracy, a political system in which power is regarded as being invested in the people,
spec. a Communist state,
esp. in Eastern Europe;
People's front = Popular Front;
People's Palace, a centre for the recreation and entertainment of the people,
spec. a former East London institution with library, theatre, educational classes, etc., opened in 1887; also
fig.;
people's park, a park intended to be used by all members of a community;
People's Power = people power (b), sense 8 above;
spec. a name given in certain countries to a political party claiming to represent the interests of the people;
people's republic, name assumed by a number of left-wing or Communist states, as
People's Republic of China; also in
gen. allusive use;
people's theatre, a theatre run on socialist lines for the use of the community;
people's war, (
a) a war in which the people are regarded as fighting against the ruling classes or foreign aggression; (
b) a war in which all members of the community are involved, a total war.
| 1937 E. Snow Red Star over China vi. i. 211 The Kuominchun, the ‘*People's Army’ of General Feng Yu'hsiang. 1941 ‘G. Orwell’ Coll. Ess. (1968) II. 116 The Home Guard is..a sort of People's Army officered by Blimps. 1969 A. G. Frank Latin Amer. xxiv 366 Nowhere does Debray suggest how the guerrilla band is later to develop into the people's army. 1970 A. Sinclair Guevara iii. 37 The regular army must be disbanded and a people's army created..of peasants and workers and soldiers. |
| [1980 Washington Post 15 Jan. a16 Muammar Qaddafi has called on Americans living in his country to march on their embassy and turn it into a ‘people's bureau’.] 1981 N.Y. Times 20 Aug. 1/5 Last May the Reagan Administration shut the so-called Libyan's *People's Bureau in Washington after accusations that the bureau was involved in finding and killing anti-Qaddafi exiles in the United States. 1986 Ibid. 1 May a8/4 People working for five Italian concerns had been asked to leave following Italy's decision..to cut the staff of the Libyan People's Bureau in Rome by 10. |
| 1938 Sun (Baltimore) 7 Sept. 1/1 Award winners are Prof. Ferdinand Porsche, designer of the ‘Volkswagen’, Germany's new ‘*people's car’. 1939 War Illustr. 4 Nov. p. iii/1 A scheme by which German artisans paid in advance by weekly instalments for their long-promised ‘people's car’ would appear to have fallen through, for the great works at Fallersleben, the supposed factory for these cars, are now stated to be turning out munitions. 1958 [see bubble n. 2 c]. 1972 Buenos Aires Herald 2 Feb. 7/6 The rise of nationalism has brought demands for inexpensive ‘people's cars’ in Chile, Peru and Venezuela. |
| 1953 Wodehouse Performing Flea 205 In Dormitory 309 the *People's Choice was good old George Travers. 1961 ― Service with Smile (1962) v. 80 ‘Why is he the people's choice?’ ‘Because she's got the goods on him.’ |
| 1934 H. Griffith People's Court 9 Comrade Chernov only turned up just in time yesterday not to make the *People's Court look ridiculous in the eyes of its clients. 1935 Ann. Reg. 1934 i. 191 A law of May 3 constituted a new and extraordinary Court of Justice, the so-called People's Court, for all political offences. This tribunal as well as the old regular courts in numerous cases passed excessively severe sentences on opponents of the Government. 1938 Ann. Reg. 1937 181 In April the People's Court sentenced several Catholic priests to long periods of detention. 1946 Ann. Reg. 1945 205 Twenty-four People's Courts were established by Decree in Bohemia and Moravia. 1970 H. Trevelyan Middle East in Revolution 145 The notorious Colonel Medhawi, a cousin of Qasim, presided over the People's Court [in Iraq]. 1972 N.Y. Law Jrnl. 10 Oct. 1/5 The three-level federal system which emerged was composed of People's Courts with jurisdiction in rural areas; Regional Courts which are courts of first and second instance with appellate jurisdiction; and the Supreme Courts which are divided on a territorial basis into Supreme Courts of the autonomous republics, Union Republics and the U.S.S.R. 1977 Listener 15 Dec. 779/1 The Provisionals are now attempting to develop ‘People's Courts’. |
| 1947 New Times 3 Dec. 3 (heading) The *people's democracies—a fresh breach in the imperialist system. Ibid. 4/2 In the people's democracies, power has passed from the hands of the exploiting classes—the landlords and bourgeoisie—into the hands of the people. 1958 F. W. Neal Titoism in Action i. 1 The Communist leadership which came to power in Yugoslavia in 1945 organized the country along the lines prescribed by the Soviet Union for an Eastern European ‘people's democracy’. 1974 Times 22 Jan. 14/2 Mr Jack Jones..made an unfortunate remark about his desire to see Britain become a People's Democracy, which is the title given to those Eastern European states which have nothing to do with the people and are not democratic; but it turned out that he meant, not a People's Democracy but a people's democracy, which is not at all the same thing and better hadn't be. 1977 P. Johnson Enemies of Society viii. 109 Social democrat means a Right-wing anti-Communist politician of the centre; a People's Democracy or a People's Democratic Republic is a form of Communist totalitarian state. |
| 1937 ‘G. Orwell’ Coll. Ess. (1968) I. 271 The worker and the bourgeois..are fighting side by side. This uneasy alliance is known as the Popular Front (or, in the Communist press, to give it a spuriously democratic appeal, *People's Front). 1937 E. Snow Red Star over China iii. iii. 99 If the Chinese People's Front is powerfully homogeneous..the war will be short. 1958 Spectator 13 June 777/3 Mr. Grant's badly camouflaged appeal for a new People's Front. |
| 1854 Punch 24 June 266/1 The *People's Palace will become a misnomer if the people are so confined in workshops [etc.]..that none but the comparatively idle can visit what is expressly designed for the appreciation of the industrious. 1889 G. B. Shaw London Music 1888–89 (1937) 210 Covent Garden is a people's palace compared with Bayreuth. 1890 Hardy Let. 13 Mar. (1978) I. 210 We cannot do better than what you propose—purchase a library of fiction for the People's Palace. 1892 Zangwill Childr. Ghetto I. 231 The Club was the People's Palace of the Ghetto. 1964 D. Owen Eng. Philanthropy (1965) iii. x. 293 In the early 1930's the original People's Palace was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt and since 1954 has formed a part of Queen Mary College of London University. 1967 Guardian 29 July 12/4 Sir John Wardlaw-Milne..has left {pstlg}100,000 to the State of Jersey..to build a ‘people's palace’ where tourists with children can shelter on wet days. 1970 E. J. Hirst Seeing Glasgow 41 The Old Glasgow Museum, People's Palace, Glasgow Green, provides a visual record of the development of Glasgow. The City's history is shown in pictures and prints. 1971 P. J. Keating Working Classes in Victorian Fiction iv. 96 The People's Palace was built in Whitechapel... In May 1887 the Queen travelled to the Mile End Road to declare the Palace officially open. 1975 Scottish Field Mar. 44/1 (caption) A bowl traditionally attributed to the old Delftfield pottery, now in the People's Palace Museum, Glasgow. Ibid. 45/1 It could mean more interest being taken in the People's Palace exhibit. |
| 1863 Dickens Uncomm. Trav. (1866) xxiii. 163/1 The *People's Park near Birmingham..was crowded with people from the Black Country. 1873 C. M. Yonge Pillars of House III. xxiv. 8 One of the brothers took her out in the street, or to the ‘People's Park’. 1963 Guardian 19 Nov. 9/7 Rumford..suggested..in 1789 the laying-out of a great ‘people's park’ along the Isar. 1970 Time 23 Nov. 81 Last year he [sc. the chancellor of Berkeley] was unfairly blamed for the way police handled student demands that one of the university's empty lots be turned into a ‘people's park’. 1976 Times 4 Sept. 10/5 In Bremen's ‘people's park’ the food is tasty. |
| 1978 Washington Post 8 Apr. a17/2 Spokesmen for the opposition *People's Power slate, said..that they still hoped to win some of the 21 assembly seats being contested in Manila. 1980 Summary World Broadcasts: Soviet Union (B.B.C.) 17 June a3/2 They are clearly trying to dispatch the diehards into Kampuchea to continue their bandit raids against people's power. 1986 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 23 Aug. 8/5 The 80-member commission was set up soon after President Aquino came to power after the February ‘people's power’ revolution. |
| 1949 Times 8 Apr. 5/3 Mr. Rákosi..said..that ‘the Hungarian Republic must be developed into a *People's Republic’. 1972 J. Poyer Chinese Agenda (1973) vi. 63 The khaki uniforms and green collar tabs of the Army of the People's Republic of China. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia III. 80/2 Congo (Brazzaville) Official name: République Populaire du Congo (People's Republic of the Congo). 1975 Bangladesh Times 18 July 2/6 The Magura Journalists Association in a meeting held recently at Magura hailed the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh for creating the new district of Magura. 1978 Ld. Hailsham Dilemma of Democracy xxii. 148 Probably our own monarch would not survive the institution in Britain of..a people's republic. |
| 1920 D. H. Lawrence Touch & Go 5 A nice phrase: ‘A People's Theatre’. But what about it? There's no such thing in existence as a *People's Theatre. 1929 S. W. Cheney Theatre xxii. 506 In Germany a real ‘democratic’ theatre was developed before the war, and today functions as a ‘people's theatre’ of a unique sort. It is, perhaps, historically important as a step toward a theatre for a new Socialistic time. The Volksbühne in Berlin is owned by its audiences. |
| 1904 L. Hale (title) The ‘*People's War’ in France 1870–1871. 1942 E. Waugh Put out More Flags i. 86 This is all that anyone talks about, thought Ambrose; jobs and the kind of war it is going to be..people's war, total war, indivisible war, war infinite, war incomprehensible. 1947 J. Bertram Shadow of War 9 ‘How about China's United Front?’ I tried to tell them of what I had seen of this people's war. 1968 K. Martin Editor xv. 301 It was not until after Dunkirk that the idea of a People's War began to be understood. 1972 P. Black Biggest Aspidistra ii. v. 133 The broadcasts did not cheat; the voices and sentiments were those of the people's war. 1976 M. Green Children of Sun viii. 311 Official propaganda presented this as a ‘people's war’, and emphasised the proletarian ordinariness of its heroes. |
Hence
peopleize (
ˈpiːp(ə)laɪz)
v. nonce-wd., to render popular in character;
† ˈpeopleship Obs., the position of a commoner, plain citizenship;
peoplet (
ˈpiːplɪt), a small people, nation, or tribe.
| 1865 E. Burritt Walk Land's End vi. 208 The Established Church could not do a better thing to begin with, than to *peopleise these magnificent edifices [the cathedrals] committed to its trust. I cannot say popularise, because a kind of flashy significance attaches to that word. |
| 1650 B. Discolliminium 48 If I be an Esquire, I will sell my Esquireship to any honest man for a good *People-ship. |
| 1872 R. Black tr. Guizot's Hist. Fr. I. 3 A *peoplet [Fr. peuplade] distinct from all its neighbours in features, costume, and especially language. 1880 Episodes Fr. Hist. 9 Charlemagne had still..much rigour to exercise in Saxony, including the removal of certain Saxon peoplets out of their country. |
▸
people carrier n. a vehicle or system designed to transport a relatively large number of passengers;
spec. a large family car, similar in shape to a minibus, capable of seating six or more people, usually in three rows.
| 1970 N.Y. Times 31 May 21/4 Braniff built the $2-million Jet-rail... It is dreaming now of some other kind of *people carrier for its new terminal building at the new field. 1983 Autocar 26 Nov. 35/4 We have come to appreciate the Prairie's uncluttered spaciousness. We see it as less of a people carrier, more as a roomy estate car. 1997 Car Mar. 49/1 The Pronto's tall body lets passengers sit high in the car, as they do in a people-carrier. |
▪ II. people, v. (
ˈpiːp(ə)l)
Forms: see
prec. [a. F. peupler, in OF. popler, puepler, pupler (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), f. peuple: see prec.] 1. trans. To furnish or fill with people or inhabitants; to populate.
| c 1500 Melusine 18 And he began within her land..for to byld & make fayre tounes & strong Castels, and was the land within short tyme peupled raisonably. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. iii. 251 The world must be peopled. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iv. vi. 219 The force of Silver..hath peopled this mountaine more than any other place in all these Kingdomes. 1696 Whiston Th. Earth ii. (1722) 137 The nearest Regions must have been first and most fully peopled. 1766 Reid Let. Wks. I. 47/1 Our College is very well peopled this session. 1840 Thirlwall Greece VII. lix. 369 Seleucus founded his new capital..Antiochia, peopling it with the inhabitants of Antigonia. |
b. transf. To fill or stock (with animals, inanimate objects, etc.).
| a 1533 Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) K k, O gybet..thou arte peopled with innocentis. 1644 G. Plattes in Hartlib's Legacy (1655) 247 It lasts three or four..years in the ground, according as the ground is good, and (at first) well peopled with it. 1837 J. W. Croker in C. Papers 8 Feb., Our influenza..continues somehow to people the churchyards. |
c. fig. To imagine, or represent, as peopled.
| 1817–18 Shelley Ros. & Helen 147 This silent spot tradition old Had peopled with the spectral dead. a 1854 H. Reed Lect. Brit. Poets (1857) II. xi. 87 That region which his genius has peopled with spiritual creations. 1879 Proctor Pleas. Ways Sc. x. 199 The fancies of men have peopled three of the four..elements..with strange forms of life. |
2. To fill or occupy as inhabitants; to inhabit; to constitute the population of (a country, etc.).
| c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon vi. 150 Ye sholde have see come there knyghtes, gentylmen, burgeys,..yomen,..so that this castell was pepled of all maner of folke. 1606 G. W[oodcocke] Hist. Ivstine xxxviii. 120 There is no difference between the Frenchmen that inhabit Asia, and the Frenchmen that people Italy. a 1727 Newton Chronol. Amended i. (1728) 106 The people of Caria..began to frequent the Greek seas, and people some of the Islands therein. 1732 Pope Ess. Man i. 27 What vary'd Being peoples every star. 1854 Bright Sp., Russia 31 Mar. (1876) 236 The thousand millions of human beings who.. people this planet. |
b. transf. and
fig. of animals, inanimate objects, etc.
| 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, v. v. 9 These same Thoughts, people this Little World. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. King and no K. i. i, I..have sent The pride of all his youth to people graves. 1632 Milton Penseroso 8 As thick and numberless As the gay motes that people the Sun Beams. 1805 W. Saunders Min. Waters 224 The variety of marine productions that people this element. 1865 Kingsley Herew. viii, The heroes of Troy, Alexander and his generals, peopled her imagination. |
† c. absol. To settle down as inhabitants or colonists; to form a settlement.
Obs.| 1596 Raleigh Discov. Gviana 19 Ieronimo Ortal de Saragosa, with 130 soldiers..was cast with the currant on the coast of Paria, and peopled about S. Miguell de Neueri. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies vii. v. 508 Many talked of peopling there, and to passe no farther. |
3. intr. (for
refl.) To become filled or occupied with people; to grow populous.
| 1659 Heylin Examen Hist. i. 108 The world had peopled very slowly..if Eve had not twinned at least at every birth. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 355 This state [Vermont] is rapidly peopling. 1892 Home Missionary (N.Y.) July 155 Not being on the line of a railroad, it has not peopled so fast as Creede. |