persona

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin persōna (“mask; character, role”),^[2][3][4][5] the word that also gave, through Old French persone, person and parson.^[6][2] The Latin noun first meant a mask, especially one worn by an actor, then a character played by an actor, and later an individual human being.^[6][2] Its origin is unknown; it may be a loanword, and both the OED and Ayto compare Etruscan phersu, apparently a mask.^[2][6] Several of the uses of the Latin word follow those of Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon, “face, mask, person”).^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

An assumed character or role, especially one adopted by an author in his writing; also a character in a play or story: 1732, in Bentley's preface to Paradise Lost.^[2] Merriam-Webster also dates the word to 1732.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word was taken over in the sense the Latin had in the theatre, a character or role.^[6][2] In the 20th century it came to mean the side of a person's character that is shown to others (1902),^[2] and in 1917 Jung's psychology made it a technical term for the outer attitude a person adopts to fit a social role,^[2][8][9] which Merriam-Webster notes is often contrasted with the anima.^[5] Etymonline records an earlier use by Ezra Pound in 1909 for a literary character voicing the author,^[9] and Barnhart dates that literary sense to 1958.^[8] By the 1930s, according to Barnhart, the psychological sense had been generalized to a person's outward image or façade, as in a public persona.^[8] The plural personae is kept for characters in fiction, personas being usual for public images.^[5]

Timeline

• 1732 – an assumed role; a dramatic or literary character.^[2][5]
• 1902 – the side of one's character shown to others.^[2]
• 1909 – in Ezra Pound, a literary character voicing the author.^[9]
• 1917 – in Jungian psychology, the outer attitude adopted for a social role.^[2][8][9]
• 1930s – a person's public image or façade.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The image or personality a person presents to the world, as distinct from the private self: The comedian's brash stage persona hid a shy man.^[5][4][2]
2. A character or role taken on by an author or performer; the speaking voice of a literary work.^[4][2][10]
3. (psychology) In Jungian psychology, the outward attitude a person adopts to fit a social role, which hides the inner self.^[4][5][2]
4. (usually plural personae) A character in a play, novel or other fiction.^[5][4]

Related words

• person
• parson
• personality
• personage
• impersonate
• personnel

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster gives the plural personae for the characters of a fiction and personas for the social front;^[5] Collins gives personae, and the Shorter Oxford both forms.^[4][10] The phrases persona grata and persona non grata, an acceptable and an unacceptable person, originally of diplomats, come from Late Latin.^[9] Weekley also notes in propria persona.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray