- Person
- Person Per"son, n. [OE. persone, persoun, person, parson, OF.
persone, F. personne, L. persona a mask (used by actors), a
personage, part, a person, fr. personare to sound through;
per + sonare to sound. See {Per-}, and cf. {Parson}.]
1. A character or part, as in a play; a specific kind or
manifestation of individual character, whether in real
life, or in literary or dramatic representation; an
assumed character. [Archaic]
[1913 Webster]
His first appearance upon the stage in his new person of a sycophant or juggler. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]
No man can long put on a person and act a part. --Jer. Taylor. [1913 Webster]
To bear rule, which was thy part And person, hadst thou known thyself aright. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
How different is the same man from himself, as he sustains the person of a magistrate and that of a friend! --South. [1913 Webster]
2. The bodily form of a human being; body; outward appearance; as, of comely person. [1913 Webster]
A fair persone, and strong, and young of age. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
If it assume my noble father's person. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
3. A living, self-conscious being, as distinct from an animal or a thing; a moral agent; a human being; a man, woman, or child. [1913 Webster]
Consider what person stands for; which, I think, is a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and reflection. --Locke. [1913 Webster]
4. A human being spoken of indefinitely; one; a man; as, any person present. [1913 Webster]
5. A parson; the parish priest. [Obs.] --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
6. (Theol.) Among Trinitarians, one of the three subdivisions of the Godhead (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost); an hypostasis. ``Three persons and one God.'' --Bk. of Com. Prayer. [1913 Webster]
7. (Gram.) One of three relations or conditions (that of speaking, that of being spoken to, and that of being spoken of) pertaining to a noun or a pronoun, and thence also to the verb of which it may be the subject. [1913 Webster]
Note: A noun or pronoun, when representing the speaker, is said to be in the first person; when representing what is spoken to, in the second person; when representing what is spoken of, in the third person. [1913 Webster]
8. (Biol.) A shoot or bud of a plant; a polyp or zooid of the compound Hydrozoa Anthozoa, etc.; also, an individual, in the narrowest sense, among the higher animals. --Haeckel. [1913 Webster]
True corms, composed of united person[ae] . . . usually arise by gemmation, . . . yet in sponges and corals occasionally by fusion of several originally distinct persons. --Encyc. Brit. [1913 Webster]
{Artificial person}, or {Fictitious person} (Law), a corporation or body politic; -- this term is used in contrast with {natural person}, a real human being. See also {legal person}. --Blackstone.
{Legal person} (Law), an individual or group that is allowed by law to take legal action, as plaintiff or defendent. It may include natural persons as well as fictitious persons (such as corporations).
{Natural person} (Law), a man, woman, or child, in distinction from a corporation.
{In person}, by one's self; with bodily presence; not by representative. ``The king himself in person is set forth.'' --Shak.
{In the person of}, in the place of; acting for. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
