Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.