Action vs Person - What's the difference?
action | person |
Something done so as to accomplish a purpose.
A way of motion or functioning.
A fast-paced activity.
A mechanism; a moving part or assembly.
(music): The mechanism, that is the set of moving mechanical parts, of a keyboard instrument, like a piano, which transfers the motion of the key to the sound-making device.Marshall Cavendish Corporation
(slang) sexual intercourse.
The distance separating the strings and the fretboard on the guitar.
(military) Combat.
(legal) A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio ).
(mathematics) A mapping from a pairing of mathematical objects to one of them, respecting their individual structures. The pairing is typically a Cartesian product or a tensor product. The object that is not part of the output is said to act'' on the other object. In any given context, ''action'' is used as an abbreviation for a more fully named notion, like group action or ''left group action.
The event or connected series of events, either real or imaginary, forming the subject of a play, poem, or other composition; the unfolding of the drama of events.
(art, painting and sculpture) The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted.
(bowling) spin put on the bowling ball.
(business, obsolete, a Gallicism) A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds.
* Burke
Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually an act or scene of a theatric performance.
(management) To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.
* {{quote-book, year=2004
, publisher=Pearson Education
, author=Ros Jay, Richard Templar
, title=Fast Thinking Manager's Manual
, edition=Second edition
, chapter=Fast thinking: project
, section=Fast Thinking Leader
* {{quote-book, year=2005
, publisher=Routledge
, author=Fritz Liebreich
, title=Britain's Navel and Political Reaction to the Illegal Immigration of Jews to Palestine, 1945-1948
, chapter=The physical confrontation: interception and diversion policies in theory and practice
* {{quote-book, year=2007
, publisher=The Stationery Office
, editor=
, author=Great Britain: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
, title=Tax Credits: Getting it wrong? 5th report session 2006-2007
, chapter=Case study: 11257
, section=Chapter 2: Changes and developments since June 2005
(transitive, chiefly, archaic) To initiate a legal action against someone.
* {{quote-book, year=1856
, publisher=Stringer & Townsend
, author=Thomas Chandler Haliburton
, title=The Attaché: or Sam Slick in England
, section=Chapter XLVII: The Horse Stealer; or All Trades Have Tricks But Our Own
, edition=New Revised Edition
* {{quote-book, year=1844
, year_published=
, publisher=T. C. Newby
, author=Robert Mackenzie Daniel
, title=The Grave Digger: A novel by the author of The Scottish Heiress
, volume=I
, section=Chapter IX: How the Grave-differ entertained a lady
* {{quote-book, year=1871
, year_published=2002
, publisher=Oxford University Press US
, author=Michael Shermer
, quotee=(Alfred Russell Wallace)
, title=In Darwin’s shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russell Wallace
, section=Chapter 10. Heretic Personality
* {{quote-book, year=1996
, publisher=Boydell & Brewer
, author=Darryl Mark Ogier
, title=Reformation and Society in Guernsey
, chapter=Discipline: Enforcement
, section=Part Two: The Calvinist Regime
An individual; usually a human being.
* 1784 , William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c. ,
* , chapter=7
, title= # 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.
#* Francis Bacon
#* Jeremy Taylor
#* Milton
#* South
# (Christianity) Any one of the three hypostases of the Holy Trinity: the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit.
#* Book of Common Prayer
# Any sentient or socially intelligent being.
# (in a compound noun or noun phrase) Someone who likes or has an affinity for (a specified thing).
The physical body of a being seen as distinct from the mind, character, etc.
*, III.1.2.iii:
* 1897 , (Henry James), (What Maisie Knew) :
* 1978 , (Lawrence Durrell), Livia , Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 418:
* 2004 , (The New York Times) :
(legal) Any individual or formal organization with standing before the courts.
(legal) The human genitalia; specifically , the penis.
* 1824 , (
* 1972 , Evans v. Ewels'', ''Weekly Law Reports , vol. 1, p. 671 at pp. 674–675:
(grammar) A linguistic category used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance and those to whom or about whom he is speaking. See grammatical person.
(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.
* Encyc. Brit.
(obsolete) To represent as a person; to personify; to impersonate.
(transitive, humorous, gender-neutral) To man.
* 2007 , Brian R. Brenner, Don't Throw This Away!: The Civil Engineering Life (page 40)
* 2008 , William Guy, Something Sensational (page 337)
As nouns the difference between action and person
is that action is something done so as to accomplish a purpose while person is person.As an interjection action
is demanding or signifying the start of something, usually an act or scene of a theatric performance.As a verb action
is (management) to act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.action
English
(wikipedia action)Noun
(en noun)- Knead bread with a rocking action .
- an action movie
- a rifle action
Growing Up with Sciencep.1079
- She gave him some action .
- He saw some action in the Korean War.
- The Euripus of funds and actions .
Derived terms
* actioner * action hero * action item * action man * action movie * action star * actions speak louder than words * direct action * ! * lost in action * missing in action * piece of the action * social action * take actionSee also
* deed *Interjection
(en interjection)- The director yelled ‘Action !’ before the camera started rolling.
Verb
(en verb)citation, isbn=9780273681052 , page=276 , passage=‘Here, give me the minutes of Monday’s meeting. I’ll action your points for you while you get on and sort out the open day.’}}
citation, isbn=9780714656373 , page=196 , passage=Violent reactions from the Jewish authorities were expected and difficulties of actioning the new guidelines were foreseen.}}
citation, isbn=9780102951172 , page=26 , passage=HMRC said that one reason they had not actioned her appeal was because she had said in her appeal form ‘I am appealing against the overpayment for childcare for 2003-04, 2004-05’, thus implying she was disputing her ‘overpayment’.}}
citation, page=270 , passage=‘I have no business to settle with you—arrest me, Sir, at your peril and I’ll action you in law for false imprisonment.’}}
citation, pages=189-190 , passage=“Scrip threatened me at first with an action for slander—he spoke of actions to the wrong man though—action! no, no no. I should have actioned him—ha! ha! [...]”}}
citation, isbn=9780195148305 , page=261 , passage=I have actioned him for Libel, but he won’t plead, and says he will make himself bankrupt & won’t pay a penny.}}
citation, isbn=9780851156033 , page=148 , passage=In 1589 the Court went so far as to effect a reconciliation between Michel le Petevin and his wife after she actioned him for ill treatment and adultery with their chambermaid.}}
Usage notes
* The verb sense (term) is rejected by some usage authorities., page 3References
* OED 2nd edition 1989 * Notes:External links
* *Anagrams
* English words suffixed with -tion ----person
English
Noun
(en-noun) (by suppletion)PREFACE
- THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Per?ons of the fir?t di?tinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ?everal new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and di?tingui?h it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=“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. […]”}}
- his first appearance upon the stage in his new person of a sycophant or juggler
- No man can long put on a person and act a part.
- To bear rule, which was thy part / And person , hadst thou known thyself aright.
- How different is the same man from himself, as he sustains the person of a magistrate and that of a friend!
- three persons and one God
- Jack's always been a dog person , but I prefer cats.
- 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.
- The Captain, inclining his military person , sat sideways to be closer and kinder […].
- At first blush it seemed that what was striking about him rested on the fact that his dress was exotic, his person foreign.
- 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.
- At common law a corporation or a trust is legally a person .
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 ...
- 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.
- True corms, composed of united personae yet in sponges and corals occasionally by fusion of several originally distinct persons .
- (Haeckel)
Usage notes
In senses 1, 1.3, and 1.4, the plural is either persons'' or ''people'', with ''persons'' sounding more formal and ''people'' more colloquial. In senses 1.2, 2, 3, and 5 ''persons is the only plural.Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* advance person * businessperson * cameraperson * chairperson * common person * draftsperson * first person * foreperson * houseperson * in person * layperson * newsperson * nonperson * ombudsperson * person-to-person * person-hour * person-year * persona * personable * personal * personate * personification * personify * personnel * repairperson * salesperson * second person * stick person * spokesperson * third person * unperson * VIPVerb
(en verb)- (Milton)
- We had hit the iceberg, and it was time to person the lifeboats.
- 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