persona

Forms

persona f (plural personas)^[1] A popular pronunciation presona (or pressona) is old and still heard in vulgar speech.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin persōna (“actor's mask; character; personality; person”), a learned word used in every period.^[2][5][6][1] In Latin it meant first a mask, especially the actor's mask, then the part played and a person, a sense already in Cicero.^[7][8] The inherited Romance forms include Portuguese pessoa and Galician persoa, and the word is also Catalan persona, French personne and Italian persona.^[2][9]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[1][8] Corominas and the Academy take it from Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask, masked actor”), and the Academy derives this from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon, “face, mask”).^[5][2][6] Wiktionary gives the Etruscan source as possible, perhaps through a derived adjective.^[1] The Roman explanation from personāre (“to sound through”), recorded by Gellius, is unlikely because the vowel of the second syllable of the noun is long.^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas cites a record of 1100, then Berceo (1220–1250).^[2][5] The earliest hits in the CDH are Latin charters with personas; the first in Spanish is the Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250), which forbids the judges to depart from the law out of shame before any persona.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Learned in origin, the word became popular at least by the end of the Middle Ages.^[2] From the 15th century la persona was also used as an impersonal pronoun “one, people”, now typical of vulgar speech: Corral (c. 1430) writes of the devil finding la persona mudable.^[2] Alfonso X's Lapidario already uses it for a human individual.^[12] Covarrubias quotes the philosophers' definition and the phrase de buena persona “of good build”, and Autoridades also gives the sense “figure, bodily appearance”.^[13][14] The grammatical, legal, philosophical and Trinitarian senses are learned uses of the Latin word.^[6][15]

Timeline

• 1100 – the first record the DCECH cites, from the Bulletin Hispanique.^[2]
• 1215 – personas in a Latin charter of the monastery of Oña.^[11]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita, the first record in Spanish in the CDH.^[11]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo, the BDELC's first record.^[5]
• 13th century – the derivatives personaje and personero.^[2][5]
• c. 1430 – Corral uses la persona as an impersonal pronoun.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin persona and Greek prosopon.^[16]
• 1525 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades calls it “a Latin word”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person, a human individual.^[6][1]
2. A man or woman whose name is not known or not given.^[6]
3. A man or woman prominent in public life.^[6]
4. A sensible, upright person: Tu primo es muy persona.^[6]
5. A character in a literary work.^[6]
6. (law) A subject of rights and duties: persona jurídica.^[6][1]
7. (philosophy) An intelligent being.^[6]
8. (grammar) The category of pronouns and verbs marking speaker, addressee and others; a form of the verb in that category: la tercera persona del plural.^[6][1]
9. (Christianity) Each of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.^[6]

Word family

• personaje
• personal
• personarse
• personero
• antipersona
• apersonarse
• buscapersonas
• personería
• personalidad
• personalizar
• unipersonal

Related words

• personificación
• Latin persona
• Portuguese pessoa
• English person

Usage notes

Persona is also the third-person singular of the verb personarse “to appear in person”, a separate headword.^[1][5] En persona means “in person”, and persona non grata is used in diplomacy.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 502
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4964
4. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. persona
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. persona
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. persona
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. persona
12. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. persona
13. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1209
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. persona
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 820
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 396
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. persona