Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PER-SON'I-FI-ED, pp.

Represented with the attributes of a person.

PER-SON'I-FY, v.t. [L. persona and facio.]

To give animation to inanimate objects; to ascribe to an inanimate being the sentiments, actions or language of a rational being or person, or to represent an inanimate being with the affections and actions of a person. Thus we say, the plants thirst for rain. The trees said to the fig-tree, come thou, and reign over us. – Judges ix.

PER-SON'I-FY-ING, ppr.

Giving to an inanimate being the attributes of a person.

PER'SON-IZE, v.t.

To personify. [Not much used.] – Richardson.

PER-SPEC'TIVE, a. [infra.]

1. Pertaining to the science of optics; optical. – Bacon.
2. Pertaining to the art of perspective. – Encyc.

PER-SPEC'TIVE, n. [Fr.; It. perspettiva; Sp. perspectiva; from L. perspicio, per and specio, to see.]

1. A glass through which objects are viewed. – Temple.
2. The art of drawing on a plane surface true resemblances or pictures of objects, as the objects appear to the eye from any distance and situation, real and imaginary; as, the rules of perspective. – Encyc.
3. A representation of objects in perspective. – Encyc.
4. View; vista; as, perspectives of pleasant shades. – Dryden.
5. A kind of painting, often seen in gardens and at the end of a gallery, designed expressly to deceive the sight by representing the continuation of an alley, a building, a landscape or the like. Aerial perspective, the art of giving due diminution to the strength of light, shade and colors of objects, according to their distances and the quantity of light falling on them, and to the medium through which they are seen. – Encyc. Isometrical perspective is the art of drawing in perspective, as a building for instance, with each part of the same relative size, the more distant objects being undiminished by distance, as in ordinary perspective. – Haldeman.

PER-SPEC'TIVE-LY, adv.

Optically; through a glass; by representation. – Shak.

PER-SPEC'TO-GRAPH, n.

Description of perspective.

PER'SPI-CA-BLE, a.

Discernible. – Herbert.

PER-SPI-CA'CIOUS, a. [L. perspicax, from perspicio.]

1. Quick sighted; sharp of sight.
2. Of acute discernment. – South.

PER-SPI-CA'CIOUS-NESS, n.

Acuteness of sight.

PER-SPI-CAC'I-TY, n. [L. perspicacitas.]

1. Acuteness of sight; quickness of sight.
2. Acuteness of discernment or understanding.

PER'SPI-CA-CY, n.

Acuteness of sight or discernment. – B. Jonson.

PER-SPI'CIENCE, n. [L. perspicientia.]

The act of looking with sharpness.

PER'SPI-CIL, n. [L. per and speculum, a glass.]

An optic glass. [Little used.] – Crashaw. Glanville.

PER-SPI-CU'I-TY, n. [Fr. perspicuité; L. perspicuitas, from perspicio.]

1. Transparency; clearness; that quality of a substance which renders objects visible through it. [Little used.] – Brown.
2. Clearness to mental vision; easiness to be understood; freedom from obscurity or ambiguity; that quality of writing or language which readily presents to the mind of another the precise ideas of the author. Perspicuity is the first excellence of writing or speaking.

PER-SPIC'U-OUS, a. [L. perspicuus.]

1. Transparent; translucent. [Little used.] – Peacham.
2. Clear to the understanding; that may be clearly understood; not obscure or ambiguous. Language is perspicuous when it readily presents to the reader or hearer the precise ideas which are intended to be expressed. Meaning, sense or signification is perspicuous, when it is clearly and easily comprehended.

PER-SPIC'U-OUS-LY, adv.

Clearly; plainly; in a manner to be easily understood. – Bacon.

PER-SPIC'U-OUS-NESS, n.

Clearness to intellectual vision; plainness; freedom from obscurity. [We generally apply perspicuous to objects of intellect, and conspicuous to objects of ocular sight.]

PER-SPI-RA-BIL'I-TY, n. [from perspirable.]

The quality of being perspirable.

PER-SPI'RA-BLE, a. [from L. perspiro. See Perspire.]

1. That may be perspired; that may be evacuated through the pores of the skin. – Arbuthnot.
2. Emitting perspiration. [Not proper.] – Bacon.

PER-SPI-RA'TION, n. [L. perspiro. See Perspire.]

1. The act of perspiring; excretion by the cuticular exhalents not condensed into sensible moisture on the surface; insensible evacuation of the fluids of the body through the excretories of the skin. – Encyc. Arbuthnot.
2. Matter perspired.

PER'SPI-RA-TIVE, a.

Performing the act of perspiration.

PER'SPI-RA-TO-RY, a.

Perspirative. – Berkeley.

PER-SPIRE', v.i. [L. per and spiro, to breathe.]

1. To evacuate the fluids of the body through the excretories of the skin without sensible condensation of moisture upon the surface; as, a person perspires freely.
2. To be evacuated or excreted insensibly through the excretories of the skin; as, a fluid perspires.