Etymologies for Common English Words

Basic Vocabulary

Person is a Middle English inheritance derived from Anglo-Norman persoun or parsone, itself an Old French loanword from Latin persona, meaning "role, part or character". In a literal sense, persona refers to the masks used by actors in classical Greco-Roman theater. Speculated to originate in the Etruscan word for mask, φersu, which itself may come from the Ancient Greek word prosopon, or "face, visage". This word originates from a linking of pros + ops, or "towards the eye", a compound potentially stretching all the way back to Proto-Indo-European and sharing etymology with Sanskrit pratika ("turned towards"). Also speculated to derive from Latin "per(-)sono", which can be translated literally as "through-sound(ing)", or "to ring, resonate or project sound through". Thus linking a persona with a kind of instrument or medium for projecting selfhood like a musical instrument projects sound.