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Person vs Spirit - What's the difference?

person | spirit |

As nouns the difference between person and spirit

is that person is person while spirit is spirit (alcohol).

person

English

Noun

(en-noun) (by suppletion)
  • An individual; usually a human being.
  • * 1784 , William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c. , 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.
  • * , chapter=7
    • , title= 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. […]”}}
  • # 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
  • his first appearance upon the stage in his new person of a sycophant or juggler
  • #* Jeremy Taylor
  • No man can long put on a person and act a part.
  • #* Milton
  • To bear rule, which was thy part / And person , hadst thou known thyself aright.
  • #* South
  • How different is the same man from himself, as he sustains the person of a magistrate and that of a friend!
  • # (Christianity) Any one of the three hypostases of the Holy Trinity: the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit.
  • #* Book of Common Prayer
  • three persons and one God
  • # Any sentient or socially intelligent being.
  • # (in a compound noun or noun phrase) Someone who likes or has an affinity for (a specified thing).
  • Jack's always been a dog person , but I prefer cats.
  • The physical body of a being seen as distinct from the mind, character, etc.
  • *, III.1.2.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), p. 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.
  • (legal) Any individual or formal organization with standing before the courts.
    • At common law a corporation or a trust is legally a person .
  • (legal) The human genitalia; specifically , the penis.
  • * 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, p. 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.
  • (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.
    • 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 also

    Derived 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 * VIP

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To represent as a person; to personify; to impersonate.
    • (Milton)
  • (transitive, humorous, 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

    Statistics

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    Anagrams

    * English suppletive nouns English terms derived from Etruscan 1000 English basic words ----

    spirit

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The undying essence of a human; the soul.
  • * , chapter=7
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=[…] St.?Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit .}}
  • * 1967 , MacCormack, Woman Times Seven
    • a triumph of the spirit over the flesh.
  • A supernatural being, often but not exclusively without physical form; ghost, fairy, angel.
    • A wandering spirit haunts the island.
  • * John Locke
    • Whilst young, preserve his tender mind from all impressions of spirits and goblins in the dark.
  • Enthusiasm.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Phil Dawkes, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Sunderland 2-2 West Brom , passage=The result may not quite give the Wearsiders a sweet ending to what has been a sour week, following allegations of sexual assault and drug possession against defender Titus Bramble, but it does at least demonstrate that their spirit remains strong in the face of adversity.}}
  • The manner or style of something.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or
  • * Alexander Pope
    • A perfect judge will read each work of wit / With the same spirit that its author writ.
  • (usually, in the plural) A volatile liquid, such as alcohol. The plural form spirits is a generic term for distilled alcoholic beverages.
  • Energy; ardour.
  • * Fuller
    • "Write it then, quickly," replied Bede; and summoning all his spirits together, like the last blaze of a candle going out, he indited it, and expired.
  • One who is vivacious or lively; one who evinces great activity or peculiar characteristics of mind or temper.
    • a ruling spirit'''; a schismatic '''spirit
  • * Dryden
    • Such spirits as he desired to please, such would I choose for my judges.
  • Temper or disposition of mind; mental condition or disposition; intellectual or moral state; often in the plural.
    • to be cheerful, or in good spirits'''; to be down-hearted, or in bad '''spirits
  • * South
    • God has made a spirit' of building succeed a ' spirit of pulling down.
  • (obsolete) Air set in motion by breathing; breath; hence, sometimes, life itself.
  • * Spenser
    • For, else he sure had left not one alive, / But all, in his Revenge, of Spirit would deprive.
  • * Spenser
    • The mild air, with season moderate, / Gently attempered, and disposed so well, / That still it breathed forth sweet spirit .
  • (obsolete) A rough breathing; an aspirate, such as the letter h ; also, a mark denoting aspiration.
  • * Ben Jonson
    • Be it a letter or spirit , we have great use for it.
  • Intent; real meaning; opposed to the letter, or formal statement.
    • the spirit of an enterprise, or of a document
  • (alchemy, obsolete) Any of the four substances: sulphur, sal ammoniac, quicksilver, and arsenic (or, according to some, orpiment).
  • * Chaucer
    • the four spirits and the bodies seven
  • (dyeing) stannic chloride

    • Derived terms

    (Derived terms) * community spirit * free spirit * Holy Spirit * in good spirits * in spirit (adverb) * in the spirit it was meant (idiom) * kindred spirit * methlyated spirit * moving spirit * party spirit * petroleum spirit * poor in spirit * proof spirit * pyroacetic spirit * rectified spirit * shad-spirit * spiritdom * spirited * spiriten * spirit-filled * spiritful * spirithood * spiritish * spiritless * spiritlike * spiritling * spiritly * spiritness * spiritous * spiritship * spiritsome * spiritual * spiritually * spirituality * spirit away (verb) * spirit gum * spirit lamp * spirit level * spirit off * spirit of hartshorn * spirit of salt * spirit of the law * spirit of turpentine * spirit of vitriol * spirit of wine * spirit rapper/spirit rapping * spirit stove * spirit world * spirit writing * surgical spirit * team spirit * that's the spirit * the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak * white spirit * wood spirit * zombie spirit (spirit)

    See also

    * ghost * soul

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To carry off, especially in haste, secrecy, or mystery.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2009, date=February 8, author=Dave Kehr, title=Buñuel at His Wildest, in Circulation Again, work=New York Times citation
    • , passage=God does not make an appearance, but the Devil (Ms. Pinal) emphatically does: first in the guise of a schoolgirl who tries to lure Simon down with the sight of her shapely legs; then as a bearded but blatantly female Jesus carrying a lamb; and finally as a stylishly coiffed woman who succeeds in spiriting Simon off, by means of a jet, to a Manhattan discotheque — Buñuel’s persuasive idea of hell.}}
  • * Willis
    • I felt as if I had been spirited into some castle of antiquity.
  • To animate with vigor; to excite; to encourage; to inspirit; sometimes followed by up .
    • Civil dissensions often spirit the ambition of private men.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • Many officers and private men spirit up and assist those obstinate people to continue in their rebellion.

    Statistics

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