persona

Forms

persona f (plural persone)^[1] Old forms are persone, personna and persuna, and an old plural -i.^[2] Southern Italian dialects remade it as a masculine.^[3]

Etymology

DELI treats it as a learned word, borrowed from Latin persōna (“mask; character; person”).^[4][5][6] The Latin word first meant the mask of an actor, then the role, the character and the individual.^[6][7] It is generally traced to Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask, masked figure”), found in tomb inscriptions beside masked figures,^[4][5][6] perhaps through a derivative *𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖𐌍𐌀 (*φersuna).^[6][1] The Etruscan word in turn is thought to adapt Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon, “face; mask”), which would make the word a piece of Greek theatre brought to Rome by the Etruscans.^[6][5][8] The Roman explanation from persono (“to sound through”) is unlikely, since the vowel lengths differ.^[1][9]

The Romance forms are French personne, Occitan persona, Catalan persona, Spanish persona and Portuguese pessoa.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the Breve di Montieri of 1219, in the sense “human body”; the sense “human being” is in Guido Faba in the first half of the 13th century.^[4][5] Faba writes of a good friend “de persona k'èe da amare” (a person to be loved).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Brunetto Latini used the word as a grammatical term before 1294, and the theological sense, the three persons of the Trinity, goes back to Tertullian's Latin.^[4] Old Italian also used it as an indefinite pronoun, “anyone”, and in negative sentences “no one”, as in Boccaccio's se persona ci è (if anyone is there); French personne kept the second use.^[10][11][12]

Several derivatives came through French: personaggio (16th century, from personnage) and later senses of personale and personalità.^[4][6] In psychology persona is Jung's term for the face a person shows to others.^[5][1] The phrase in prima persona “directly, personally” is recent.^[4]

Timeline

• 1219 – The Breve di Montieri uses it for the human body.^[4][5]
• First half of the 13th century – Guido Faba uses it for a human being.^[4]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it as a grammatical term.^[4]
• Before 1344 – Personale in Giovanni Villani.^[4]
• 16th century – Personaggio is borrowed from French.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person, a human being: alla festa c'erano trenta persone.^[5][13][1]
2. (plural) People: troppe persone in fila.^[5][10]
3. A person as a self-aware individual with dignity and rights: il rispetto della persona.^[5][14]
4. A person in a public role: la persona del sindaco.^[5][11]
5. The body, one's figure: quella giacca dona alla tua persona.^[5][10][1]
6. (law) A subject of rights and duties: persona fisica, an individual, persona giuridica, a legal entity.^[10][11]
7. (grammar) Grammatical person: la terza persona plurale.^[10][4]
8. (psychology) The persona, in Jung's sense.^[5][1]

Word family

• personaggio
• personale
• personalità
• personalizzare
• personificare
• personificazione
• impersonale
• impersonare
• spersonalizzare

Related words

• gente
• individuo
• Latin persōna
• French personne

Usage notes

Common phrases are di persona (in person), in persona (in the flesh; personified, as in è la gentilezza in persona), a persona (per head) and per interposta persona (through an intermediary).^[15][13][14]

A separate Old Italian persona “parish priest” is recorded once, in a Sienese account book kept in London in 1305–1308; it comes from Middle English persone or Old French persone (compare English parson).^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 103
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 327
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2866
13. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it