person
/ˈpəːs(ə)n
/- For many societies, the human being is the person who has learned and obeys the community's rules.
- It is trying to be all things to all sorts of rich people but is this a recipe for confusion?
- Ian can eat enough food for four of five people, but he uses all that energy up on stage.
Synonyms
- Remember, your version of the bill also permitted legal representation for the persons so caught up.
- It is confined entirely to communications which take place for the purpose of obtaining legal advice from professional persons.
- These are persons whose legal status may be uncertain, as one may not be sure whether they are to be regarded as combatants or civilians.
- He wasn't a huge horse person and the animals knew it and didn't treat him that well.
- Call me an old rat bag and I will brush it off with relative good humour, but call me a cat person and I might have to punch your lights out.
- Leaving, the son says that his dad doesn't know anything about dogs, he's a cat person.
- Have a pen available on your person, and if paper is not available, write it on your hand.
- Within a day or so you forget that you ever had anything so horrific occurring on your person.
- He does not want to publicise the fact that he carries large quantities of cash on his person in case he becomes a target for thieves.
- For a start there was a large number of interjections in the second person, which I presume related to me.
- There were some interjections in the second person that were not very savoury.
- As we shall see, each inflection of the triune name identifies all three persons of the Trinity.
- Even within the Trinity, the persons exist separately only in relation to one another.
Usage
The words people and persons can both be used as the plural of person, but they have slightly different connotations. People is by far the commoner of the two words and is used in most ordinary contexts: a group of people; there were only about ten people; several thousand people have been rehoused. Persons, on the other hand, tends now to be restricted to official or formal contexts, as in this vehicle is authorized to carry twenty persons; no persons admitted without a pass.
Phrases
be one's own person
in one's own person
in person
in the person of
Origin
Middle English: from Old French persone, from Latin persona 'actor's mask, character in a play', later 'human being'.
When first used in English person meant ‘a role or character assumed in real life or in a play’ as well as ‘an individual human being’. The first sense has largely been taken over by persona, which came directly in the mid 18th century from the source of person, Latin persona ‘actor's mask, character in a play’, and also ‘human being’. The Latin term was also used by Christian writers as a term for the rector of a parish, what we would now call a parson (Middle English). From the same source come impersonate (early 17th century) originally meaning ‘personify’, and personnel (early 19th century) from French and which still keeps the original stress on the final syllable normal in that language.