[pur-suh
n] 
| 1. | a human being, whether man, woman, or child: The table seats four persons. |
| 2. | a human being as distinguished from an animal or a thing. |
| 3. | Sociology. an individual human being, esp. with reference to his or her social relationships and behavioral patterns as conditioned by the culture. |
| 4. | Philosophy. a self-conscious or rational being. |
| 5. | the actual self or individual personality of a human being: You ought not to generalize, but to consider the person you are dealing with. |
| 6. | the body of a living human being, sometimes including the clothes being worn: He had no money on his person. |
| 7. | the body in its external aspect: an attractive person to look at. |
| 8. | a character, part, or role, as in a play or story. |
| 9. | an individual of distinction or importance. |
| 10. | a person not entitled to social recognition or respect. |
| 11. | Law. a human being (natural person) or a group of human beings, a corporation, a partnership, an estate, or other legal entity (artificial person or juristic person) recognized by law as having rights and duties. |
| 12. | Grammar. a category found in many languages that is used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance and those to or about whom he or she is speaking. In English there are three persons in the pronouns, the first represented by I and we, the second by you, and the third by he, she, it, and they. Most verbs have distinct third person singular forms in the present tense, as writes; the verb be has, in addition, a first person singular form am. |
| 13. | Theology. any of the three hypostases or modes of being in the Trinity, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. |
| 14. | be one's own person, to be free from restrictions, control, or dictatorial influence: Now that she's working, she feels that she's her own person. |
| 15. | in person, in one's own bodily presence; personally: Applicants are requested to apply in person. |
| per·son (pûr'sən) n.
[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 Note at man. |
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.
person per·son (pûr'sən)
n.
A living human.
The composite of characteristics that make up an individual personality; the self.
The living body of a human.
Physique and general appearance.
in person
Also, in the flesh. In one's physical presence, as in He applied for the job in person, or I couldn't believe it, but there she was, in the flesh. The first expression dates from the mid-1500s. The variant, from the 1300s, was long used to allude to the bodily resurrection of Jesus, but later acquired its looser meaning. Charles Dickens has it in Our Mutual Friend (1865): "The minutes passing on, and no Mrs. W. in the flesh appearing."
