Pêr'son1, n.
(pêr'sn, 14), n. [O. Fr. persone, N. Fr. personne, Pr., Sp., & It. persona, Pg. pessoa, from Lat. persona, a mask; a personage, part, a person, fr. personare, to sound through, from prefix per, through, and sonare, to sound.]
Sense 1. The exhibition or representation of a character in dialogue, fiction, or on the stage.
These tables, Cicero pronounced under the person of Crassus, were of more use and authority than all the books of the philosophers. Baker.
Sense 2. The part or character which any one sustains, either by office or in the ordinary relations of human life.
And her gifts Were such as under government well seemed, Unseemly 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.
Sense 3. The corporeal manifestation of a soul; the outward appearance, expression, &c.; body.
Love, sweetness, goodness in her person shined. Milton.
You'll find her person difficult to gain. Dryden.
Sense 4. A living soul; a self-conscious being; a moral agent; especially, a living human being; a man, woman, or child; an individual of the human race; — also, among Trinitarians, one of the three subjects or agents constituting the godhead, that is, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We must consider what person stands for; which, I think, is a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing in different times and places. Locke.
The whole three persons are co-eternal together and co-equal. Athanasian Creed.
Sense 5. A human being spoken of indefinitely; one; a man.
Sense 6. (Gram.) One of three relations of a certain sort, pertaining to a noun or pronoun, and thence also to the verb of which either may stand as the subject; as, in the first person the noun represents the speaker, in the second that which is spoken to, in the third that which is spoken of.
Sense 7. The parson or minister of a parish. [Obs.]
Artificial person (Law), a corporation or body politic. Blackstone. — In person, by one's self; with bodily presence; not by representative. “The king himself in person is set forth.” Shak. “Tall and stately in person.” Irving.