personality
/ˌpɜːsəˈnælɪti/pur-suh-NA-lih-tee
/ˌpɝsəˈnælɪti/pur-suh-NA-lih-tee
Meaningthe quality of being a person
Common meaning: a person's character
Other meanings: a famous person
- perthroughSkeat, Etymological Dictionary (1898), p. 436 · scan
- sonsound, noise; to ring outLewis & Short, Latin Dictionary (1879), p. 1730 · scan
- aladjective ending: relating to
- itynoun ending: being so, the quality of
‘through’ + ‘sound, noise’ → personality
Journey through time
- Proto-Indo-European*swan-‘resound, sound’source
- Latinper- + sonare‘through + sound, noise; to ring out’source
- Latinpersonare‘to sound through’source
- Middle Englishpersonsource
- Englishperson‘a human being’
- Englishformed in English from personpersonal‘to do with one particular person’
- Englishformed in English from personalpersonality‘a person's character’ · today
Sources & notes
Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
- No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
- US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
- No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.
Origin: Formed in English from personal + -ity.
Dictionary: Skeat (1898), PERSON, p.436 · scan
Roots
- personare Latin “to sound through”
- sonus; sonō Latin “sound, noise; to ring out”
Building blocks are an automatic split · open in app