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Stuff vs People - What's the difference?

stuff | people |

In transitive terms the difference between stuff and people

is that stuff is to form or fashion by packing with the necessary material while people is to inhabit; to occupy; to populate.

stuff

English

(wikipedia stuff)

Noun

(en-noun)
  • Miscellaneous items; things; (with possessive) personal effects.
  • :
  • *
  • *:The Bat—they called him the Bat.. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.
  • The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object.
  • *Sir (c.1569-1626)
  • *:The workman on his stuff' his skill doth show, / And yet the ' stuff gives not the man his skill.
  • A material for making clothing; any woven textile, but especially a woollen fabric.
  • *1992 , Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety , Harper Perennial 2007, p.147:
  • *:She was going out to buy some lengths of good woollen stuff for Louise's winter dresses.
  • Abstract substance or character.
  • *c.1599 , (William Shakespeare),
  • *:When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff
  • *c.1610 , (William Shakespeare), (The Tempest) ,
  • *:We are such stuff / As dreams are made on
  • (lb)
  • :
  • *{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=3 , passage=It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).}}
  • Substitution for trivial details.
  • :
  • (lb) Narcotic drugs, especially heroin.
  • *1947 , William Burroughs, letter, 11 March:
  • *:For some idiotic reason the bureaucrats are more opposed to tea than to stuff .
  • Furniture; goods; domestic vessels or utensils.
  • *Sir (c.1564-1627)
  • *:He took away locks, and gave away the king's stuff .
  • (lb) A medicine or mixture; a potion.
  • :(Shakespeare)
  • (lb) Refuse or worthless matter; hence, also, foolish or irrational language; nonsense; trash.
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:Anger would indite / Such woeful stuff as I or Shadwell write.
  • (lb) A melted mass of turpentine, tallow, etc., with which the masts, sides, and bottom of a ship are smeared for lubrication.
  • :
  • Paper stock ground ready for use. When partly ground, it is called half stuff .
  • :(Knight)
  • Usage notes

    * The textile sense is increasingly specialized and sounds dated in everyday contexts.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To fill by crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.
  • She stuffed the turkey for Thanksgiving using her secret stuffing recipe.
  • * Dryden
  • Lest the gods, for sin, / Should with a swelling dropsy stuff thy skin.
  • * 1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
  • The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn’t know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles.
  • To fill a space with (something) in a compressed manner.
  • He stuffed his clothes into the closet and shut the door.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Put roses into a glass with a narrow mouth, stuffing them close together and they retain smell and colour.
  • (used in the passive) To sate.
  • I’m stuffed after having eaten all that turkey, mashed potatoes and delicious stuffing.
  • (transitive, British, Australia, New Zealand) To be broken. (rfex)
  • To sexually penetrate. (rfex)
  • To be cut off in a race by having one's projected and committed racing line (trajectory) disturbed by an abrupt manoeuvre by a competitor.
  • I got stuffed by that guy on the supermoto going into that turn, almost causing us to crash.
  • To preserve a dead bird or animal by filling its skin.
  • To obstruct, as any of the organs; to affect with some obstruction in the organs of sense or respiration.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I'm stuffed , cousin; I cannot smell.
  • To form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • An Eastern king put a judge to death for an iniquitous sentence, and ordered his hide to be stuffed into a cushion, and placed upon the tribunal.
  • (dated) To crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.
  • Synonyms

    * (to sexually penetrate) fuck, root, screw

    Derived terms

    * * stuff the ballot box * stuffy

    Derived terms

    * made of sterner stuff * stuff one's face * stuff up * stuff-up * stuff you * stuffed up * get stuffed

    people

    English

    (wikipedia people)

    Noun

  • ; a body of human beings considered generally or collectively; a group of two or more persons.
  • :
  • *ca. 1607: XXII people was in this parrish drownd. (Plaque recording the )
  • *
  • *, chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people . From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs,
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people' do send to other ' people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
      Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Towards the end of poverty , passage=But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= A punch in the gut , passage=Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.}}
  • (plural peoples ) Persons forming or belonging to a particular group, such as a nation, class, ethnic group, country, family, etc; folk; community.
  • A group of persons regarded as being employees, followers, companions or subjects of a ruler.
  • *1611, (Old Testament), , 2 (w) 8:15:
  • *:And David reigned over all Israel; and David executed judgment and justice unto all his people .[http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=Kjv2Sam.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=8&division=div1]
  • *1952, (Old Testament), (Revised Standard Version) , Thomas Nelson & Sons, (w) 1:3:
  • *:The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand.
  • One's colleagues or employees.
  • *2001 , Vince Flynn, Transfer of Power , p.250:
  • *:Kennedy looked down at Flood's desk and thought about the possibilities. "Can you locate him?" "I already have my people checking on all [it]."
  • *2008 , Fern Michaels, Hokus Pokus? , p.184:
  • *:Can I have one of my people' get back to your ' people , Mr. President?" She tried to slam the phone back into the base and failed.
  • A person's ancestors, relatives or family.
  • :
  • The mass of a community as distinguished from a special class (elite); the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; the citizens.
  • :
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about

    Usage notes

    When used to mean "persons" (meaning 1 below), "people" today takes a plural verb. However, in the past it could take a singular verb (see image).

    Synonyms

    * (leod) * (persons belonging to a group) collective, community, congregation, folk, nation, clan, tribe, race, class, caste, club * (followers) fans, groupies, supporters * (ancestors or relatives) kin, kith, folks * (mass of a community) populace, commoners, citizenry

    Derived terms

    * (the) beautiful people * man of the people * peeps * people person * people's army * people's democracy * people's republic * people's war * peoplehood * peopleless

    See also

    * sheeple

    Verb

    (peopl)
  • To stock with people or inhabitants; to fill as with people; to populate.
  • * 1674 , , The State of Innocence and the Fall of Man , Act II, Scene I:
  • He would not be alone, who all things can; / But peopled Heav'n with Angels, Earth with Man.
  • To become populous or populated.
  • To inhabit; to occupy; to populate.
  • * , lines 7–8:
  • Derived terms

    * peopler

    References

    *