Etymologically
Log in

personne

Etymology and origin of the French word personne

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1135, Couronnement de Louis
Inherited from
Latin persona via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin (persona)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin persona
French personne

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /pɛʁ.sɔn/[1]

Forms

personne f (plural personnes)[1] Old French persone and presonne.[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French persone, inherited from Latin persōna (“actor's mask; role, character; person”).[3][2][4][1][5] The Latin word first meant a theatre mask, then the role given to the mask and, outside the theatre, an individual, as already in Cicero; in Late Latin it also meant “honour, dignity”, grammarians used it from Varro on to translate Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon), and lawyers opposed it to “res” “thing”.[2][6] It is thought to be a technical borrowing from Etruscan “phersu”, which names a masked figure in an inscription, Wiktionary calls the origin unknown, perhaps Etruscan, and Littré rejects a derivation from persono (“to sound through”), whose /o/ is short.[2][6][1][7]

Cognate with Italian persona, Spanish persona and Portuguese pessoa; the word exists in all the Romance languages except Romanian.[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1135 in the Couronnement de Louis in the physical sense “bearing, stature”.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

From “bearing” came “the body of the person spoken of” (about 1170), alive in content de sa personne (1538), bien fait de sa personne (about 1660) and bien de sa personne (1935).[3][2] By about 1140 it also meant an important person, and in 1174 an ecclesiastical dignitary, a sense continued by English parson.[2][6] In the same year it named a person of the Trinity and an individual, man or woman.[3][2] En personne (1464) replaced en sa propre personne (about 1250); jeune personne dates from 1547 and grande personne “adult” from 1640.[3]

As a negative pronoun, ne … persone “nobody” is recorded from 1226–1288; the southern dialects use forms of Old Occitan degun, from Latin nec ūnus, instead.[4][9][6]

Timeline

  • c. 1135 – Persone “bearing” in the Couronnement de Louis.[3]
  • c. 1140 – “Person of importance”, in Gaimar.[3]
  • 1174 – “Individual” and “person of the Trinity”, in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence.[3]
  • 1226 – Pronoun persone “no one”.[4]
  • 1464 – En personne in Pathelin.[3]
  • 1538 – Content de sa personne.[3]
  • 1640 – Grande personne “adult”.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person, an individual: une personne âgée, par personne.[9][1]
  2. One's body, oneself: content de sa personne, en personne, in person.[3][2]
  3. Jeune personne: a young woman, grande personne: an adult.[3][2]
  4. (grammar) A person: la première personne du singulier.[1]
  5. (theology) A person of the Trinity.[3][2]
  6. (law) Personne physique, personne morale: natural person, legal entity.[10]

Pronoun

  1. With ne: Nobody, no one: Personne ne le sait.[9][1]
  2. Without ne: anyone: Vous le savez mieux que personne.[9][1]

Word family

  • personnage
  • personnifier
  • personnification

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 268b
  6. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Personne.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/personne. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·