PERSON
Per"son, n. Etym: [OE. persone, persoun, person, parson, OF. persone,
F. personne, L. persona a mask (used by actors), a personage, part, a
person, fr. personare to sound through; per + sonare to sound. See
Per-, and cf. Parson.]
1. A character or part, as in a play; a specific kind or manifestation of individual character, whether in real life, or in literary or dramatic representation; an assumed character. [Archaic] His first appearance upon the stage in his new person of a sycophant or juggler. Bacon. No man can long put on a person and act a part. Jer. Taylor. To bear rule, which was thy part And person, hadst thou known thyself aright. Milton. How different is the same man from himself, as he sustains the person of a magistrate and that of a friend! South.
2. The bodily form of a human being; body; outward appearance; as, of
comely person.
A fair persone, and strong, and young of age. Chaucer.
If it assume my noble father's person. Shak.
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined. Milton.
3. , self-conscious being, as distinct from an animal or a thing; a moral agent; a human being; a man, woman, or child. Consider what person stands for; which, I think, is a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and reflection. Locke.
4. A human being spoken of indefinitely; one; a man; as, any person present.
5. A parson; the parish priest. [Obs.] Chaucer.
6. (Theol.)
Defn: Among Trinitarians, one of the three subdivisions of the
Godhead (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost); an hypostasis.
"Three persons and one God." Bk. of Com. Prayer.
7. (Gram.)
Defn: One of three relations or conditions (that of speaking, that of being spoken to, and that of being spoken of) pertaining to a noun or a pronoun, and thence also to the verb of which it may be the subject.