person

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English persone, also persoun,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman parsone and Old French persone (“human being”),^[4][2][5] and directly borrowed from Latin persōna (“mask worn by an actor; character in a play; human being”).^[4][6] The Anglo-Norman word, recorded from 1121–35, already meant an individual, one's body, a grammatical person and a person of the Trinity.^[7] The origin of the Latin word is unknown;^[4] most dictionaries think it was probably borrowed from Etruscan phersu (“mask”).^[5][2][8][9] Klein explains the Etruscan word as a masked figure that embodied a god of the underworld, and takes it from Greek, comparing Ancient Greek Περσεφόνη (Persephónē).^[3] Skeat and Weekley mention the old explanation from personō (“to sound through”), the mask being named from the voice sounding through it;^[10][11] Skeat calls it a popular etymology, since the o of persōna is long.^[10][11] Several uses of the Latin word, in grammar and in theology, follow Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon, “face, mask”).^[4][12] The same French word, in its normal English development, became parson, which was kept for a priest, while person returned to the Latin spelling.^[13][9][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Both a role or character taken on in life or in a play and an individual human being: c. 1225–30, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[4] Barnhart dates the word probably before 1200.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Latin persōna first meant an actor's mask, then a character in a play; by Cicero's time it was used for one's role in life and then for one's individual personality.^[8] Varro used it for the grammatical person, Christian writers of the second century for each of the three persons of the Trinity, and Medieval Latin for a human being, a person of importance and a parish priest.^[8] English took over the meanings "human being", "character assumed in a play or in life" and "person of the Trinity";^[8][13] the sense "role" has since passed largely to persona.^[14][9] Trench pointed out that the saying "God is no respecter of persons" lost its force once person no longer meant the part one plays in life.^[12] The word was used for the living body from about 1390, in Chaucer,^[4][13] for a person of rank, a personage, from before 1425,^[4] and in law, from the 15th century, for a human being or body such as a corporation recognized as having rights and duties.^[8] Its use in English grammar begins in the 16th century.^[13][8] Swift used it slightingly for someone of low status in 1704;^[4] from 1807 it formed compounds for people of either sex in an occupation, later often as a neutral alternative to -man.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it first as an individual man or woman, quoting Locke's definition of a person as a thinking, intelligent being.^[15] The verb, rare before the 20th century, has meant to staff (a desk, a telephone), often humorously, since 1972.^[4][16]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – an individual human being; a role or character, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[4]
• 13th century – a person of the Trinity.^[13]
• before 1382 – the self or individual personality.^[4]
• c. 1390 – the living body, in Chaucer.^[4]
• before 1425 – a person of rank or importance.^[4]
• before 1438 – a physical presence at an event, as in the phrase in person.^[4]
• 15th century – in law, a human being or body with rights and duties.^[8]
• 16th century – a grammatical person.^[13][8]
• 1704 – someone of low rank or worth, in Swift.^[4]
• 1807 – as the second part of compounds naming an occupation.^[4]
• 1972 – verb, to staff (a desk, a telephone).^[4][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. An individual human being: She is the most patient person I know.^[17][2]
2. The body of a human being, sometimes with the clothes worn: No weapon was found on her person.^[17][2]
3. A grammatical category of pronouns and verb forms, showing whether they refer to the speaker (first person), the one addressed (second person) or someone or something else (third person).^[17][2]
4. (law) A human being, or a body such as a corporation, recognized as having rights and duties.^[17][8]
5. (Christianity) Any of the three hypostases of the Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.^[17][13]
6. in person: physically present: The author came in person to sign copies.^[4][17]
7. (archaic) A character or part in a play, or one assumed in real life.^[2][4]

Word family

• personhood
• one-person
• person-to-person
• person-hour
• person-year
• personable
• personal
• personate

Related words

• parson
• persona
• personage
• personality
• impersonate
• personify
• personnel

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
13. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins