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.
—Idioms
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.
[Origin: 1175–1225; ME persone < L persōna role (in life, a play, or a tale) (LL: member of the Trinity), orig. actor's mask < Etruscan phersu (< Gk prósōpa face, mask) + -na a suffix]
—Synonyms 1.Person,individual,personage are terms applied to human beings. Person is the most general and common word: the average person. Individual views a person as standing alone or as a single member of a group: the characteristics of the individual; its implication is sometimes derogatory: a disagreeable individual. Personage is used (sometimes ironically) of an outstanding or illustrious person: We have a distinguished personage visiting us today.
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).
[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.
c.1225, from O.Fr. persone "human being" (12c., Fr. personne), from L. persona "human being," originally "character in a drama, mask," possibly borrowed from Etruscan phersu "mask." This may be related to Gk. Persephone. The use of -person to replace -man in compounds and avoid alleged sexist connotations is first recorded 1971 (in chairperson). Personify first recorded 1727. Personable "pleasing in one's person" is first attested c.1430. In person "by bodily presence" is from 1568. Person-to-person first recorded 1919, originally of telephone calls.
a human being; "there was too much for one person to do"
2.
a human body (usually including the clothing); "a weapon was hidden on his person"
3.
a grammatical category used in the classification of pronouns, possessive determiners, and verb forms according to whether they indicate the speaker, the addressee, or a third party; "stop talking about yourself in the third person"
An inflectional form (seeinflection) 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 County, NC (county, FIPS 145) Location: 36.39200 N, 78.97673 W Population (1990): 30180 (12548 housing units) Area: 1016.2 sq km (land), 30.5 sq km (water)
Ar`ti*fi"cial\, a. [L. artificialis, fr. artificium: cf. F. artificiel. See Artifice.]1. Made or contrived by art; produced or modified by human skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as, artificial heat or light, gems, salts, minerals, fountains, flowers. Artificial strife Lives in these touches, livelier than life. --Shak. 2. Feigned; fictitious; assumed; affected; not genuine. "Artificial tears." --Shak. 3. Artful; cunning; crafty. [Obs.] --Shak. 4. Cultivated; not indigenous; not of spontaneous growth; as, artificial grasses. --Gibbon. Artificial arguments (Rhet.), arguments invented by the speaker, in distinction from laws, authorities, and the like, which are called inartificial arguments or proofs. --Johnson. Artificial classification (Science), an arrangement based on superficial characters, and not expressing the true natural relations species; as, "the artificial system" in botany, which is the same as the Linn[ae]an system. Artificial horizon. See under Horizon. Artificial light, any light other than that which proceeds from the heavenly bodies. Artificial lines, lines on a sector or scale, so contrived as to represent the logarithmic sines and tangents, which, by the help of the line of numbers, solve, with tolerable exactness, questions in trigonometry, navigation, etc. Artificial numbers, logarithms. Artificial person (Law). See under Person. Artificial sines, tangents, etc., the same as logarithms of the natural sines, tangents, etc. --Hutton.
Nat"u*ral\ (?; 135), a. [OE. naturel, F. naturel, fr. L. naturalis, fr. natura. See Nature.]1. Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the constitution of a thing; belonging to native character; according to nature; essential; characteristic; not artifical, foreign, assumed, put on, or acquired; as, the natural growth of animals or plants; the natural motion of a gravitating body; natural strength or disposition; the natural heat of the body; natural color. With strong natural sense, and rare force of will. --Macaulay. 2. Conformed to the order, laws, or actual facts, of nature; consonant to the methods of nature; according to the stated course of things, or in accordance with the laws which govern events, feelings, etc.; not exceptional or violent; legitimate; normal; regular; as, the natural consequence of crime; a natural death. What can be more natural than the circumstances in the behavior of those women who had lost their husbands on this fatal day? --Addison. 3. Having to do with existing system to things; dealing with, or derived from, the creation, or the world of matter and mind, as known by man; within the scope of human reason or experience; not supernatural; as, a natural law; natural science; history, theology. I call that natural religion which men might know . . . by the mere principles of reason, improved by consideration and experience, without the help of revelation. --Bp. Wilkins. 4. Conformed to truth or reality; as: (a) Springing from true sentiment; not artifical or exaggerated; -- said of action, delivery, etc.; as, a natural gesture, tone, etc. (b) Resembling the object imitated; true to nature; according to the life; -- said of anything copied or imitated; as, a portrait is natural. 5. Having the character or sentiments properly belonging to one's position; not unnatural in feelings. To leave his wife, to leave his babes, . . . He wants the natural touch. --Shak. 6. Connected by the ties of consanguinity. "Natural friends." --J. H. Newman. 7. Begotten without the sanction of law; born out of wedlock; illegitimate; bastard; as, a natural child. 8. Of or pertaining to the lower or animal nature, as contrasted with the higher or moral powers, or that which is spiritual; being in a state of nature; unregenerate. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. --1 Cor. ii. 14. 9. (Math.) Belonging to, to be taken in, or referred to, some system, in which the base is 1; -- said or certain functions or numbers; as, natural numbers, those commencing at 1; natural sines, cosines, etc., those taken in arcs whose radii are 1. 10. (Mus.) (a) Produced by natural organs, as those of the human throat, in distinction from instrumental music. (b) Of or pertaining to a key which has neither a flat nor a sharp for its signature, as the key of C major. (c) Applied to an air or modulation of harmony which moves by easy and smooth transitions, digressing but little from the original key. --Moore (Encyc. of Music). Natural day, the space of twenty-four hours. --Chaucer. Natural fats, Natural gas, etc. See under Fat, Gas. etc. Natural Harmony (Mus.), the harmony of the triad or common chord. Natural history, in its broadest sense, a history or description of nature as a whole, incuding the sciences of botany, zo["o]logy, geology, mineralogy, paleontology, chemistry, and physics. In recent usage the term is often restricted to the sciences of botany and zo["o]logy collectively, and sometimes to the science of zoology alone. Natural law, that instinctive sense of justice and of right and wrong, which is native in mankind, as distinguished from specifically revealed divine law, and formulated human law. Natural modulation (Mus.), transition from one key to its relative keys. Natural order. (Nat. Hist.) See under order. Natural person. (Law) See under person, n. Natural philosophy, originally, the study of nature in general; in modern usage, that branch of physical science, commonly called physics, which treats of the phenomena and laws of matter and considers those effects only which are unaccompanied by any change of a chemical nature; -- contrasted with mental and moral philosophy. Natural scale (Mus.), a scale which is written without flats or sharps. Model would be a preferable term, as less likely to mislead, the so-called artificial scales (scales represented by the use of flats and sharps) being equally natural with the so-called natural scale Natural science, natural history, in its broadest sense; -- used especially in contradistinction to mental or moral science. Natural selection (Biol.), a supposed operation of natural laws analogous, in its operation and results, to designed selection in breeding plants and animals, and resulting in the survival of the fittest. The theory of natural selection supposes that this has been brought about mainly by gradual changes of environment which have led to corresponding changes of structure, and that those forms which have become so modified as to be best adapted to the changed environment have tended to survive and leave similarly adapted descendants, while those less perfectly adapted have tended to die out though lack of fitness for the environment, thus resulting in the survival of the fittest. See Darwinism. Natural system (Bot. & Zo["o]l.), a classification based upon real affinities, as shown in the structure of all parts of the organisms, and by their embryology. It should be borne in mind that the natural system of botany is natural only in the constitution of its genera, tribes, orders, etc., and in its grand divisions. --Gray. Natural theology, or Natural religion, that part of theological science which treats of those evidences of the existence and attributes of the Supreme Being which are exhibited in nature; -- distinguished from revealed religion. See Quotation under Natural, a., 3. Natural vowel, the vowel sound heard in urn, furl, sir, her, etc.; -- so called as being uttered in the easiest open position of the mouth organs. See Neutral vowel, under Neutral and Guide to Pronunciation, [sect] 17. Syn: See Native.
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