personとは

意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /ˈpɜːsən/, [ˈpʰɜːsn̩]
• (General American) enPR: pûrʹsn, pûrʹsən, IPA^(key): /ˈpɝsən/, [ˈpʰɚsn̩]
• 韻: -ɜː(ɹ)sən
• ハイフネーション: per‧son

名詞

person (plural persons or (by suppletion) people)

1. An individual; usually a human being. [from 13th c.]
   • 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.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 7, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     “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.

   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.
      • 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, OCLC 1086746628:

        his first appearance upon the stage in his new person of a sycophant or juggler

      • 1673, Jeremy Taylor, Heniaytos: A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year […]

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

      • 1667, John Milton, “Book 9”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

        To bear rule, which was thy part / And person, hadst thou known thyself aright.

      • 1664, Robert South, Of the Love of Christ to his Disciples

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

   2. (Christianity) Any one of the three hypostases of the Holy Trinity: the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit.
      • 1892, Book of Common Prayer, The Litanie

        three persons and one God

   3. (chiefly in science fiction) Any sentient or socially intelligent being.
   4. (in a compound noun または noun phrase) Someone who likes or has an affinity for (a specified thing). [from 20th c.]

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

2. The physical body of a being seen as distinct from the mind, character, etc. [from 14th c.]
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970, partition III, section 1, member 2, subsection iii:

     when the young ladies laughed at her for it, she replied, that it was not his person that she did embrace and reverence, but, with a Platonic love, the divine beauty of his soul.

   • 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew:

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

   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), page 418:

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

   • 2004, The New York Times:

     Meanwhile, the dazed Sullivan, dressed like a bum with no identification on his person, is arrested and put to work on a brutal Southern chain gang.

3. (law) Any individual or formal organization with standing before the courts. [from 14th c.]

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

4. (law) The human genitalia; specifically, the penis.
   • 1824, Vagrancy Act 1824 (5 Geo. 4. c. 83, United Kingdom), section 4:

     [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 ...

   • 1972, Evans v. Ewels, Weekly Law Reports, vol. 1, page 671 at pp. 674–675:

     It seems to me that at any rate today, and indeed by 1824, the word "person" in connection with sexual matters had acquired a meaning of its own; a meaning which made it a synonym for "penis." It may be ... that it was the forerunner of Victorian gentility which prevented people calling a penis a penis. But however that may be I am satisfied in my own mind that it has now acquired an established meaning to the effect already stated. It is I venture to say, well known amongst those who practise in the courts that the word "person" is so used over and over again. It is the familiar synonym of that part of the body, and, as one of the reasons for my decision in this case, I would use that interpretation of what was prevailing in 1824 and what has become established in the 150 years since then.

5. (grammar) A linguistic category used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance and those to whom or about whom he or she is speaking. See grammatical person. [from 14th c.]
6. (biology) 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.
   • 1884, Patrick Geddes, "Morphology", in Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 16

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

   (Can we find かつ add a quotation of Haeckel to this entry?)

使用する際の注意点

• In senses 1.1, 1.3, and 1.4, the plural is most commonly people, with persons occasionally used in formal speech or writing. Some native speakers will find persons inappropriate, even in formal usage. In senses 1.2, 2, 3, and 5 persons is the only plural.
• Referring to an individual as a “person” (rather than a gentleman, lady, etc.) was formerly perceived as a slight.
• Today, all major style guides recommend people rather than persons. For example, the Associated Press and the New York Times recommend "people" except in quotations and set phrases. Under the traditional distinction, which Garner says is pedantic, persons describes a finite, known number of individuals, rather than the collective term people. "Persons" is correct in technical and legal contexts.

同意語

• See also Thesaurus:person

下位語

派生語

動詞

person (三人称単数 現在形 persons, 現在分詞 personing, 過去形および過去分詞形 personed)

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

   (Can we find かつ add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

2. (transitive, gender-neutral) To man.
   • 2007, Brian R. Brenner, Don't Throw This Away!: The Civil Engineering Life, page 40:

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

   • 2008, William Guy, Something Sensational, page 337:

     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 […]

アナグラム

• Posner, nopers, preons, spreon

接尾辞

-person (複数形 -persons または -people)

1. Someone who is an expert in an area.

   sportsperson

2. Someone who is employed or holds a position in an area.

   spokesperson

3. Someone who has special characteristics relating to a topic or area.

   superperson

4. (nonstandard) In certain cases, someone who derives from a particular nationality. (More often, the separate noun "person" is used, e.g. "Norse person".)

   Norseperson

   • 2001, Jim Foster, Still Complaining (→ISBN), page 31:

     I see a Scotsperson who will invent a voice machine that will enable a person far, far away to wake another in the dead of night to ask, “Is this the Couchiching Inn?”

派生語

アナグラム

• Posner, nopers, preons, spreon