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]
His first appearance upon the stage in his new
person of a sycophant or juggler. --Bacon.
No man can long put on a person and act a part.
--Jer. Taylor.
To bear rule, which was thy part And person, hadst
thou known thyself aright. --Milton.
How different is the same man from himself, as he
sustains the person of a magistrate and that of a
friend! --South.
2. The bodily form of a human being; body; outward
appearance; as, of comely person.
A fair persone, and strong, and young of age.
--Chaucer.
If it assume my noble father's person. --Shak.
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined.
--Milton.
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.
Consider what person stands for; which, I think, is
a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and
reflection. --Locke.
4. A human being spoken of indefinitely; one; a man; as, any
person present.
5. A parson; the parish priest. [Obs.]
--Chaucer.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Artificial, or Fictitious, person (Law), a corporation
or body politic. --blackstone.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
|