person

noun

1. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.

   “1784, William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c., PREFACE THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Perſons of the firſt diſtinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ſeveral new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and diſtinguiſh it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.”

   ““A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing.[…]””

   “Each person is unique, both mentally and physically.”

2. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.

   “[…]his firſt appearance vpon the Stage, in his new perſon of a Sycophant or Iugler[…]”

   “How different […]is the same man from himself, as he sustains the person of a magistrate, and […]that of a friend!”

   “[…]to beare rule, which was thy part / And perſon, had’ſt thou known thy ſelf aright.”

   “No man can long put on a person and act a part.”

3. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.

   “three persons and one God”

4. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.
5. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.

   “Jack's always been a dog person, but I prefer cats.”

6. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.
7. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.

   “I was able to speak to a technical support person and get the problem solved.”

8. The physical body of a being seen as distinct from the mind, character, etc.

   “[…]when the young Ladies laughed at her for it, ſhe replied that it was not his perſon that ſhe did embrace and reverence, but the divine beauty of his Soule.”

   “The Captain, inclining his military person, sat sideways to be closer and kinder[…].”

   “At first blush it seemed that what was striking about him rested on the fact that his dress was exotic, his person foreign.”

9. Any individual or formal organization with standing before the courts.

   “At common law a corporation or a trust is legally a person.”

10. (euphemistic)The human genitalia; specifically, the penis.

    “[E]very Person wilfully, openly, lewdly, and obscenely exposing his Person in any Street, Road, or public Highway, or in the View thereof, or in any Place of public Resort, with Intent to insult any Female ... and being subsequently convicted of the Offence for which he or she shall have been so apprehended, shall be deemed a Rogue and Vagabond, within the true Intent and Meaning of this Act ...”

11. A linguistic category used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance and those to whom or about whom they are speaking. See grammatical person.
12. A shoot or bud of a plant; a polyp or zooid of the compound Hydrozoa, Anthozoa, etc.; also, an individual, in the narrowest sense, among the higher animals.

    “True corms, composed of united personae […] usually arise by gemmation, […] yet in sponges and corals occasionally by fusion of several originally distinct persons.”

13. A soulmate; someone, especially a romantic partner, with whom one is exceptionally compatible and connected.

    “'I still miss her. Every day,' she said. 'She was my person. […] [And when she died,] I'd lost my person. I was eight years old and I'd lost my person. Willow and I even had our own language, as lots of twins do, but I stopped talking after she died.'”

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive)To represent as a person; to personify; to impersonate.

   “Or let us perſon him like ſome wretched itinerary Judge, […]”

2. (gender-neutral, transitive)To man, to supply with staff or crew.

   ““Okay. Soon as Natalie heard, and while she was flailing around trying to turn up a Valium, she decided she had better call Scott Harrison and ask his opinion on what sort of advice, re legal moves, she ought to call back to Iréné, or Rama, or Wilkerson, or whoever’s personning the fort back there.” / “Whoever’s whatening the fort?” / “Please.[…]””

   “Thank you to the many who helped the festival succeed (and apologies to anyone omitted): […] Kevin and Mary Jannsen, for tireless work including the initial survey, soliciting raffle donations, selling tickets, personning the raffle booth during the festival, etc.”

   “And I sat at the counter and watched the cooker cat personning the griddle with one hand and the grill with the other.”

   “We had hit the iceberg, and it was time to person the lifeboats.”

   “I was just mulling over the merits of working the fryer at McDonald’s versus personning the complaints desk at Wal-Mart when I took a right onto the dirt road leading to New Millennium Bible Camp.”

name

1. A surname.