person
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɜːrsən/
ipa: [ˈpʰɜː.sᵊn]
ipa: [ˈpʰɝ.sᵊn]
ipa: /ˈpɑsən/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈpə(r)sən/
note: Indic
ipa: /-zən/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)sən
rhymes: (Indic, also) -ɜː(ɹ)zən
Forms: form: persons
form: personing
form: personning
form: personed
form: personed
form: personned
form: personned
Etymology: From Middle English persoun, personne et al., from Anglo-Norman parsone, persoun et al. (Old French persone (“human being”), French personne), and its source Latin persōna (“mask used by actor; role, part, character”), perhaps a loanword from Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask”). In this sense, displaced native man, which came to mean primarily "adult male" in Middle English; see Old English mann. Doublet of parson and persona.
Senses: examples: text: Or let us perſon him like ſome wretched itinerary Judge, […]
ref: 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], “That ’’Beza’’’s opinion of regulating sinne by a politick law, cannot be sound”, in The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, book II, page 59:
glosses: To represent as a person; to personify; to impersonate.
examples: text: “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.[…]”
ref: 1981, John Nichols, “Sunday”, in The Nirvana Blues, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published May 1983, page 89:
text: 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.
ref: 1996 fall/winter, Sharon Dezurick, “Glen Park Community Festival a Success”, in Kristin Nash, editor, Glen Park News, San Francisco, Calif.: Glen Park Association, →OCLC, columns 1–2:
text: And I sat at the counter and watched the cooker cat personning the griddle with one hand and the grill with the other.
ref: 2006 March 22–28, L.E. [Lady Exister] Leone [pseudonym; Dani Leone], “Ah, Sprrr-ing!”, in Tim Redmond, editor, San Francisco Bay Guardian, volume 40, number 25, San Francisco, Calif., →ISSN, page 61, column 1:
text: We had hit the iceberg, and it was time to person the lifeboats.
ref: 2007, Brian R. Brenner, Don't Throw This Away!: The Civil Engineering Life, page 40:
text: 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.
ref: 2008, Jess Lourey, chapter 21, in August Moon: A Murder-By-Month Mystery, Woodbury, Minn.: Midnight Ink, Llewellyn Publications, →ISBN, page 207:
text: We went so far as to stop in a hotel on the way out of Speyer — to ask for directions — but the teenaged girl personing the desk there seemed to be such an idiot[…]
ref: 2008, William Guy, Something Sensational, page 337:
text: In fact, so inebriated were they that they could barely move, and, neither nest nor wheel being personned, the ship was as usual careening wildly across the main.
ref: 2018 September, Paul Bowers, “The Wrasse and the Flatfish”, in The Panda Chronicles: A Mythology, 2nd edition, [Morrisiville, N.C.]: [Lulu.com], →ISBN, page 74:
glosses: To man, to supply with staff or crew.