Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PER'SIC, n.

The Persian language.

PER'SI-FLAGE, n. [Fr. from persifler; L. sibilo, to hiss.]

A jeering; ridicule. – H. More.

PER-SIM'MON, n.

A tree and its fruit, a species of Diospyros, a native of the states south of New York. The fruit is like a plum, and when not ripe, very astringent. – Mease.

PER'SIST, v.i. [L. persisto; per and sisto, to stand or be fixed.]

To continue steadily and firmly in the pursuit of any business or course commenced; to persevere. [Persist is nearly synonymous with persevere; but persist frequently implies more obstinacy than persevere, particularly in that which is evil or injurious to others.] If they persist in pointing their batteries against particular persons, no laws of war forbid the making reprisals. – Addison.

PER-SIST'ENCE, n.

1. The state of persisting; steady pursuit of what is undertaken; perseverance in a good or evil course, more generally in that which is evil and injurious to others, or unadvisable.
2. Obstinacy; contumacy. – Shak.

PER-SIST'ENT, or PER-SIST'ING, a.

In botany, continuing without withering; opposed to marcescent; as, a persisting stigma: continuing after the corol is withered, as a persistent calyx; continuing after the leaves drop off, as a persistent stipule; remaining on the plant till the fruit is ripe, or till after the summer is over, as a persistent leaf. – Lee. Martyn.

PER-SIST'ING, ppr.

Continuing in the prosecution of an undertaking; persevering.

PER-SIST'ING-LY, adv.

Perseveringly; steadily.

PER-SIST'IVE, a.

Steady in pursuit; not receding from a purpose or undertaking; persevering. – Shak.

PER'SON, 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 stage.]

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. – Locke.
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. – Sprat.
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. – Dryden. The rebels maintained the fight for a small time, and for their persons showed no want of courage. – Bacon.
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 stage; 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. – Baker.
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. – South.
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 third person of the verb; the verb is in the second person.
8. In law, an artificial person, is a corporation or body politic. – Blackstone. In person, by one's self; with bodily presence; not by representative. The king in person visits all around. – Dryden.

PER'SON, v.t.

To represent as a person; to make to resemble; to image. [Not in use.] – Milton.

PER'SON-A-BLE, a.

1. Having a well formed body or person; graceful; of good appearance; as, a personable man or woman. – Ralegh.
2. In law, enabled to maintain pleas in court. – Cowel.
3. Having capacity to take any thing granted or given. – Plowden. [The two latter senses, I believe, are little used.]

PER'SON-AGE, n. [Fr. personnage.]

1. A man or woman of distinction; as, an illustrious personage.
2. Exterior appearance; stature; air; as, a tall personage; a stately personage. – Shak. Hayward.
3. Character assumed. The Venetians, naturally grave, love to give in to the follies of such seasons, when disguised in a false personage. – Addison.
4. Character represented. Some persons must be found, already known in history, whom we may make the actors and personages of this fable. – Broome.

PER'SON-AL, a. [L. personalis.]

1. Belonging to men or women, not to things; not real. Every man so termed by way of personal difference only. – Hooker.
2. 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. – Locke. Character and success depend more on personal effort than on any external advantages. – J. Hawes. So we speak of personal pride, personal reflections.
3. Pertaining to the corporal nature; exterior; corporal; as, personal charms or accomplishments. Addison.
4. Present in person; not acting by representative; as, a personal interview. The immediate and personal speaking of God almighty to Abraham, Job and Moses. – White. 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. – Blackstone. 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. – Encyc.

PER'SON-AL, n.

A movable. [Not in use.]

PER-SON-AL'I-TY, n.

1. 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. – Locke.
2. Direct application or applicability to a person; as, the personality of a remark.

PER'SON-AL-IZE, v.t.

To make personal.

PER'SON-AL-LY, adv.

1. 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.
2. With respect to an individual; particularly. She bore a mortal hatred to the house of Lancaster, and personally to the king. – Bacon.
3. With regard to numerical existence. The converted man is personally the same he was before. – Rogers.

PER'SON-ATE, 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 – Smith. Linnæus.

PER'SON-ATE, v.t.

1. To represent by a fictitious or assumed character so as to pass for the person represented. – Bacon.
2. To represent by action or appearance; to assume the character and act the part of another.
3. To pretend hypocritically. [Little used.] – Swift.
4. To counterfeit; to feign; as, a personated devotion. – Hammond.
5. To resemble. The lofty cedar personates thee. – Shak.
6. To make a representation of as in picture. [Obs.] – Shak.
7. To describe. [Obs. Shak.]
8. To celebrate loudly. [L. persono.] [Not used.] – Milton.

PER'SON-A-TED, pp.

Represented by an assumed character.

PER'SON-A-TING, ppr.

Counterfeiting of another person; resembling.

PER-SON-A'TION, n.

The counterfeiting of the person or character of another. – Bacon.

PER'SON-A-TOR, n.

1. One who assumes the character of another. – B. Jonson.
2. One that acts or performs. – B. Jonson.

PER-SON-I-FI-CA'TION, n. [from personify.]

The giving to an inanimate being the figure or the sentiments and language of a rational being; prosopopoeia; as, “confusion heard his voice.” – Milton.