Persoune

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic spelling of person, meaning a human being or individual man, woman or child ; the physical body or outward bodily form of a human
2. A Middle English term for a single human individual ; the actual bodily presence or outward appearance of someone in a given place
3. Used in older English for a living human being ; the corporeal form or bodily self that someone presents to the world

Etymology: In Latin, "persona" first meant the mask an actor wore on stage, and then the character that mask represented. The word may come from an Etruscan source, and a popular explanation that it means "sounding through" is doubtful. Either way, the stage sense came first, and the idea of a role played eventually led to the idea of an individual human being. Old French carried the word into English as "persone," and Middle English writers spelled it "persoune" before the modern spelling settled in. Early uses referred to a human individual, and the sense of a bodily presence came to the fore later on.