person
American Heritage Dictionary:
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per·son
(pûr'sən) 
n.
n.
- A living human. Often used in combination: chairperson; spokesperson; salesperson.
- An individual of specified character: a person of importance.
- The composite of characteristics that make up an individual personality; the self.
- The living body of a human: searched the prisoner's person.
- Physique and general appearance.
- Law. A human or organization with legal rights and duties.
- Christianity. Any of the three separate individualities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as distinguished from the essence of the Godhead that unites them.
- Grammar.
- Any of three groups of pronoun forms with corresponding verb inflections that distinguish the speaker (first person), the individual addressed (second person), and the individual or thing spoken of (third person).
- Any of the different forms or inflections expressing these distinctions.
- A character or role, as in a play; a guise: "Well, in her person, I say I will not have you" (Shakespeare).
in person
- In one's physical presence; personally: applied for the job in person.
[Middle English, from Old French persone, from Latin persōna, mask, role, person, probably from Etruscan phersu, mask.]
USAGE NOTE The word person has found widespread use in recent decades as a gender-neutral alternative to man in the names of occupational and social roles, such as businessperson, chairperson, spokesperson, and layperson. In addition, a variety of entirely new, more inclusive phrases have arisen to compete with or supplant -man compounds. Now we often hear first-year student instead of freshman and letter carrier instead of mailman. In other cases, a clipped form, such as chair for chairman, or a phrase, such as member of the clergy for clergyman, has found widespread use as a neutral alternative. Reflecting this trend, new standards of official usage for occupational titles have been established by the U.S. Department of Labor and other government agencies; for instance, in official contexts, terms such as firefighter and police officer are now generally used in place of fireman and policeman. See Usage Notes at man.
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person
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For the plural persons, see people.
| persistence, persistency, perquisite, prerequisite, pernickety | |
| persona, personage, personality, personally |
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An individual, trust, estate, partnership, association, company, or corporation having certain legal rights and responsibilities.
| Perquisites of Office, Perquisite (PERK), Perpetuity | |
| Person-To-Person-Calls, Personal Allowances, Personal Computer (PC) |
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In law, an entity having legal responsibility. Legally, a natural person is a human being who has reached majority. (Compare with minor.) An artificial person may be a corporation ; in some instances partnerships, governments, and certain other bodies are considered persons.
Example: negotiating a contract, it is important to deal with a person; otherwise the contract may be unenforceable.
Example: negotiating a contract, it is important to deal with a person; otherwise the contract may be unenforceable.
| Perpetuity, Permit | |
| Personal Assistant, Personal Liability |
Roget's Thesaurus:
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person
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Idioms beginning with person:
person of color
In addition to the idiom beginning with person, also see feel like oneself (a new person); in person; own person, one's.
According to most codes: an individual, partnership, corporation, or other legal entity.
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One of the central problems of metaphysics is what it is to be a person. The answer ought to account for central phenomena of personhood; rationality, command of language, self-consciousness, control or agency, and moral worth or title to respect, are amongst the salient characteristics that have been thought to distinguish persons from other forms of life. In Locke, ‘person’ is a forensic term, applying for moral reasons (‘to agents capable of a law, and happiness and misery’, Essay, ii. 27). A dualistic approach regards a person as an amalgam of an essentially separate mind and body, with the resulting problem of reinventing their unity in the living person (see mind-body problem, occasionalism). Monistic theories, such as that of Strawson's Individuals (1959), work with a primitive concept of a person, as some one thing logically capable of being described in bodily or mental terms. A popular modern analogy is with the compatible software and hardware descriptions of a computer (see functionalism).
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This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.
In general usage, a human being; by statute, however, the term can include firms, labor organizations, partnerships, associations, corporations, legal representatives, trustees, trustees in bankruptcy, or receivers.
A corporation is a "person" for purposes of the constitutional guarantees of equal protection of laws and due process of law.
Foreign governments otherwise eligible to sue in United States courts are "persons" entitled to institute a suit for treble damages for alleged antitrust violations under the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C.A. § 12 et seq.).
Illegitimate children are "persons" within the meaning of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The phrase interested person refers to heirs, devisees, children, spouses, creditors, beneficiaries, and any others having a property right in, or a claim against, a trust estate or the estate of a decedent, ward, or protected person. It also refers to personal representatives and to fiduciaries.
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An inflectional form (see inflection) of pronouns and verbs that distinguishes between the person who speaks (first person), the person who is spoken to (second person), and the person who is spoken about (third person). The pronoun or verb may be singular or plural. For example:
first person singular: I walk.
second person singular: you walk.
third person singular: he/she/it walks.
first person plural: we walk.
second person plural: you walk.
third person plural: they walk.
Sign Language Videos:
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person
as in: an individual
sign description: Both P-handshapes begin up by the chest and move down the sides of the body.
sign description: Both P-handshapes begin up by the chest and move down the sides of the body.
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categories related to 'person'
- Aspects and Components of Appearance - person: general image or impression given off by physical appearance and manner
- Grammar and Usage - person: indication of person speaking, spoken to, or spoken about: first (I, we); second (you); third (he, she, it, they)
See crossword solutions for the clue Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Person
For other uses, see Person (disambiguation).
A person is a being, such as a human, that has certain capacities or attributes constituting personhood, the precise definition of which is the subject of much controversy.[vague language] The common plural of "person", "people", is often used to refer to an entire nation or ethnic group (as in "a people"), so the plural "persons" is often used in contexts which require precision such as philosophical and legal writing.
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Etymology
In ancient Rome, the word "persona" (Latin) or "prosopon" (πρόσωπον: Greek) originally referred to the masks worn by actors on stage. The various masks represented the various "personae" in the stage play, while the masks themselves helped the actor's voice resonate and made it easier for the audience to hear.[1]
In Roman law, the word "persona" became used to refer to a role played in court, and it became established that it was the role rather than the actor that could have rights, powers, and duties, because different individuals could assume the same roles, the rights, powers, and duties followed the role rather than the actor, and each individual could act in more than one role, each a different "person" in law.[tortured english][citation needed]
The concept of a "person" was further developed during the Trinitarian and Christological debates of the first through sixth centuries. Since then, a number of important changes to the word's meaning and use have taken place, and attempts have been made to redefine the word with varying degrees of adoption and influence.
Many modern speakers of colloquial English conflate the meanings of role and actor, which can result in some confusion when they try to enter into legal discourse.[citation needed]
Personhood
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Main article: Personhood
| “ | The criteria for being a person... are designed to capture those attributes which are the subject of our most humane concern with ourselves and the source of what we regard as most important and most problematical in our lives. | ” |
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—Harry G. Frankfurt |
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Personhood is the status of being a person. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law, and is closely tied to legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. According to law, only a natural person or legal personality has rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and legal liability. Personhood continues to be a topic of international debate. Historically, personhood was questioned during the abolition of slavery, the fight for women's rights and animal rights, debates about abortion, fetal rights and reproductive rights as well as debates about corporate personhood.[2]
Various specific debates have focused and continue to focus on questions about the personhood of different classes of entities. Historically, the personhood of animals, women, and slaves has been a catalyst of social upheaval. Today, most living adult humans are usually considered persons, but depending on the context, theory or definition, the category of "person" may be taken to include such non-human entities as animals, corporations, sovereign states or other polities, estates in probate, artificial intelligences, or extraterrestrial life; and may exclude some human entities in prenatal development or those with extreme mental impairments or injuries. A deceased person may be considered a person or property, depending on jurisdiction.
Personal identity
Main article: Personal identity
Personal identity is the unique numerical identity of persons through time. That is to say, the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time can be said to be the same person, persisting through time. In the modern philosophy of mind, this concept of personal identity is sometimes referred to as the diachronic problem of personal identity. The synchronic problem is grounded in the question of what features or traits characterize a given person at one time.
Identity is an issue for both continental philosophy and analytic philosophy. A key question in continental philosophy is in what sense we can maintain the modern conception of identity, while realizing many of our prior assumptions about the world are incorrect.
Proposed solutions to the problem of personal identity include continuity of the physical body, continuity of an immaterial mind or soul, continuity of consciousness or memory, the bundle theory of self, and proposals that there are actually no persons or selves which persist over time at all.
See also
References
- ^ Geddes, Leonard (1911). "Person". Catholic Encyclopedia. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11726a.htm. Retrieved 2011-03-09. "The Latin word persona was originally used to denote the mask worn by an actor. From this it was applied to the role he assumed, and, finally, to any character on the stage of life, to any individual."
- ^ "Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit", The New York Times, January 21, 2010.
Further reading
- Lukes, Steven; Carrithers, Michael; Collins, Steven, eds. (1987). The category of the person: Anthropology, philosophy, history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-27757-4.
- Cornelia J.de Vogel The concept of personality in Greek and Christian thought. In Studies in philosophy and the history of philosophy. Vol. 2. Edited by J. K. Ryan, Washington: Catholic University of America Press 1963. pp. 20–60
- Puccetti, Roland (1968). Persons: A Study of Possible Moral Agents in the Universe. London: Macmillan and Company.
"Person". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.- Korfmacher, Carsten (May 29, 2006). "Personal Identity". The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://www.iep.utm.edu/p/person-i.htm. Retrieved 2011-03-09.
External links
 |
Look up person in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Rights of Non-Human Persons Program (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies)
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations:
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Person
idioms:
- in person personlig, selv
- in the person of i den person, som er
- take a person out of himself få en person til at være ude af sig selv
- take a person up on holde nogen fast på
Nederlands (Dutch)
persoon, lichaam, rechtspersoon, personage, de geslachtsdelen
Français (French)
n. - personne, passionné de, amateur, (Jur) personne, (Ling) personne
idioms:
- in person en personne
- in the person of en la personne de
- take a person out of himself faire tenir (qn) à son offre ou sa promesse
- take a person up on relaxer (qn), apaiser (qn)
Deutsch (German)
n. - Person, Körper
idioms:
- in person persönlich
- in the person of in jmds. Person
- take a person out of himself jmdn. seine Sorgen vergessen lassen
- take a person up on jds. Herausforderungen annehmen
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πρόσωπο, άτομο, άνθρωπος, (γραμμ., νομ.) πρόσωπο
idioms:
- in person αυτοπροσώπως
- in the person of στο πρόσωπο
- take a person out of himself βοηθώ κάποιον να ξεχαστεί, να ξεχάσει τις έγνοιες του
- take a person up on δέχομαι προσφορά
idioms:
- in person in persona
- in the person of nella persona di
Português (Portuguese)
n. - pessoa (f)
idioms:
- in person em pessoa
- in the person of na pessoa de
- take a person out of himself tirar uma pessoa do sério
- take a person up on cobrar de uma pessoa
idioms:
- in person личный, лично
- in the person of в лице
- take a person out of himself вывести (кого-л.) из себя, помочь забыться
- take a person up on испытать (кого-л. в чем-л.), принять (вызов, приглашение и т.п.)
Español (Spanish)
n. - persona
idioms:
- in person en persona
- in the person of en la persona de, personificando a
- take a person out of himself hacer que alguien se olvide de sus problemas, apoyar a alguien en algo que le han prometido u ofertado
- take a person up on aceptar, poner en duda, hacer que alguien se sienta relajado
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - person, människa, gestalt, yttre
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
人, 容貌, 身体
idioms:
- in person 亲自
- in the person of 代表, 体现
- take a person out of himself 让某人沮丧
- take a person up on 接受某人的意见或计划
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 人, 容貌, 身體
idioms:
- in person 親自
- in the person of 代表, 體現
- take a person out of himself 讓某人沮喪
- take a person up on 接受某人的意見或計劃
idioms:
- in person 자기 스스로, 본인이
- in the person of ...라는 사람[인물]이 되어
- take a person out of himself 정신을 빼다
- take a person up on 남의 요청에 따라 인수하다
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 人, 者, 人物, 人格, 重要人物, 容姿, 身体, 性器, ペルソナ
idioms:
- displaced person 流民, 強制追放者
- do a person a mischief 人に危険を与える
- do a person an injustice 人の権利を侵害する
- have a person on toast 人を意のままに扱う
- have a person taped 人を評価判断する, 人の弱点を見抜く
- in person 自分で
- in the person of …役で, 代わりに
- put a person through their paces 足踏みを倒す, 力量を試す
- put a person wise 人に知らせてやる
- take a person at his/her word 真に受ける
- take a person down a peg or two やり込める
- take a person out of himself 気晴らしさせる
- take a person up on 人の申し出を受けて～をする
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) شخص, أنسان, نفس, ذات, مظهر الإنسان الخارجي
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - בן-אדם, איש, גוף, אברי-המין
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