KJV Dictionary Definition: person

person

PERSON, n. per'sn. L. persona; said to be compounded of per, through or by, and sonus, sound; a Latin word signifying primarily a mask used by actors on the state.

1. An individual human being consisting of body and soul. We apply the word to living beings only, possessed of a rational nature; the body when dead is not called a person. It is applied alike to a man, woman or child.

A person is a thinking intelligent being.

2. A man, woman or child, considered as opposed to things, or distinct from them.

A zeal for persons is far more easy to be perverted, than a zeal for things.

3. A human being, considered with respect to the living body or corporeal existence only. The form of her person is elegant.

You'll find her person difficult to gain.

The rebels maintained the fight for a small time, and for their persons showed no want of courage.

4. A human being, indefinitely; one; a man. Let a person's attainments be never so great, he should remember he is frail and imperfect.

5. A human being represented in dialogue, fiction, or on the state; character. A player appears in the person of king Lear.

These tables, Cicero pronounced under the person of Crassus, were of more use and authority than all the books of the philosophers.

6. Character of office.

How different is the same man from himself, as he sustains the person of a magistrate and that of a friend.

7. In grammar, the nominative to a verb; the agent that performs or the patient that suffers any thing affirmed by a verb; as, I write; he is smitten; she is beloved; the rain descends in torrents. I, thou or you, he, she or it, are called the first, second and third persons. Hence we apply the word person to the termination or modified form of the verb used in connection with the persons; as the first or the third person of the verb; the verb is in the second person.

8. In law, an artificial person, is a corporation or body politic.

In person, by one's self; with bodily presence; not be representative.

The king in person visits all around.

personable

PER'SONABLE, a. Having a well formed body or person; graceful; of good appearance; as a personable man or woman.

1. In law, enabled to maintain pleas in court.

2. Having capacity to take any thing granted or given.

The two latter senses, I believe, are little used.

personal

PER'SONAL, a. L. personalis. Belonging to men or women, not to things; not real.

Every man so termed by way of personal difference only.

1. Relating to an individual; affecting individuals; peculiar or proper to him or her, or to private actions or character.

The words are conditional; if thou doest well; and so personal to Cain.

Character and success depend more on personal effort than on any external advantages.

So we speak of personal pride, personal reflections.

2. Pertaining to the corporal nature; exterior; corporal; as personal charms or accomplishments.

3. Present in person; not acting by representative; as a personal interview.

The immediate and personal speaking of God almighty to Abraham, Job and Moses.

Personal estate, in law, movables; chattels; things belonging to the person; as money, jewels, furniture, &c. as distinguished from real estate in land and houses.

Personal action, in law, a suit or action by which a man claims a debt or personal duty, or damages in lieu of it; or wherein he claims satisfaction in damages for an injury to his person or property; an action founded on contract or on tort or wrong; as an action on a debt or promise, or an action for a trespass, assault or defamatory words; opposed to real actions, or such as concern real property.

Personal identity, in metaphysics, sameness of being, of which consciousness is the evidence.

Personal verb, in grammar, a verb conjugated in the three persons; thus called in distinction from an impersonal verb, which has the third person only.

PER'SONAL, n. A movable. Not in use.

personality

PERSONAL'ITY, n. That which constitutes an individual a distinct person, or that which constitutes individuality.

The personality of an intelligent being extends itself beyond present existence to what is past, only by consciousness--

1. Direct application or applicability to a person; as the personality of a remark.

personally

PER'SONALLY, adv. In person; by bodily presence; not by representative or substitute; as, to be personally present; to deliver a letter personally. They personally declared their assent to the measure.

1. With respect to an individual; particularly.

She bore a mortal hatred to the house of Lancaster, and personally to the king.

2. With regard to numerical existence.

The converted man is personally the same he was before.

personate

PER'SONATE, v.t. To represent by a fictitious or assumed character so as to pass for the person represented.

1. To represent by action or appearance; to assume the character and act the part of another.

2. To pretend hypocritically. Little used.

3. To counterfeit; to feign; as a personated devotion.

4. To resemble.

The lofty cedar personates thee.

5. To make a representation of, as in picture.

6. To describe.

7. To celebrate loudly. L. persono. Not used.

PER'SONATE, a. L. persona, a mask. Masked. A personate corol is irregular and closed by a kind of palate; or ringent, but closed between the lips by the palate.

personation

PERSONA'TION, n. The counterfeiting of the person and character of another.

personator

PER'SONATOR, n. One who assumes the character of another.

1. One that acts or performs.

personize

PER'SONIZE, v.t. To personify. Not much used.