personalty 
tinction from realty, or real property. See per- 
sonal, real. 
Our courts now regard a man's pcrsonalti/ in a light 
nearly, if not quite, equal to his realty. 
Blackstone, Com., II. xxiv. 
Action in personalty. See personality of laws, under 
personality. 
Personate Corolla of 
Snapdragon (Antir- 
rhinum majus). 
4416 
That alphabetic personification which enlivens all such 
words as Hunger, Solitude, Freedom, by the easy magic of 
an initial capital. Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 2. 
2. Embodiment; impersonation. 
They are personifications; they are passions, talents, 
opinions, virtues, vices, but not men. 
Macaulay, Mitford's Hist. Greece. 
3. In art, the representation in the form of a 
person of something abstract, as a virtue or 
BUIIltfUj UUULlLCLlCALClAj lli^on-Cll, \ JJVI '/cwj 
mask : see person. No L. or ML. verb "perso- 
nare appears in this sense. Of. L. persona-re, 
resound, play on a musical instrument (see 
person).} I. trans. 1. To assume or put on the 
character or appearance of; play the part of; 
pass one's self off as. 
The elder Brutus only personated the fool and madman 
for the good of the public. Swift, Tale of a Tub, ix. 
2. To assume; put on; perform; play. 
Does she personate, 
For some ends unknown to us, this rude behaviour? 
Mamnyer, Great Duke of Florence, iv. 2. 
3. To represent falsely or hypocritically; pre- 
tend: with a reflexive pronoun. [Bare.] 
It has been the constant practice of the Jesuits to send 
oter emissaries, with instructions to personate themselves 
members of the several sects amongst us. Swift. 
4f. To represent by way of similitude ; typify. 
The lofty cedar, royal Cymbeline, 
Personates thee. Shak., Cymbeline, v. 5. 454. 
5f. To describe ; characterize ; celebrate. 
I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of love ; 
wherein . . . he shall find himself most feelingly person- 
ated. S/iak., T. N., ii. 8. 173. 
In fable, hymn, or song, so personating 
Their cods ridiculous, and themselves past shame. 
Mitton, P. R., iv. 341. 
[In this passage personate is by some referred to Latin 
penonare, play (celebrate with music). See etymology.) 
II. intrans. To play a fictitious character. 
He wrote many poems and epigrams, sundry petty com- 
edies and enterludes, often-times personating with the 
actors. Sir G. Buck, Hist. Eich. III., p. 76. (Latham.) 
personate (per'son-at), a. [< L. pernonatus, 
masked. < persona, mask : see 
person. ] 1 . In bot., mask-like ; 
having the lower lip pushed 
upward so as to close the hia- 
tus between the two lips, as 
in the snapdragon: said of a 
gamopetalous irregular corol- 
la. 2. In zool., masked or 
disguised in any way. (a) Lar- 
val ; not imaginal. (i>) Having a col- 
oration of the face or head suggestive 
of a mask ; cucullate. 
3. Same as personated. 
personated (per ' son - a - ted), 
p. a. Personified; impersonated; hence, feigned; 
pretended; assumed: as, personated devotion. 
Tut, she dissembles : all is personated 
And counterfeit comes from her ! 
B. Jonson, New Inn, iii. 2. 
The niggardliness and incompetency of this reward 
shewed that he was a personated act of greatness, and that 
Private Cromwell did govern Prince Oliver. 
Wood, Athena; Oxou., II. 
We followed the sound till we came to a close thicket, 
on the other side of which we saw a young woman sitting as 
it were in & personated sullenness just over a transparent 
fountain. Steele, Spectator, No. 118. 
personation (per-sp-na'shon), n. [< L. as if 
"personatio(n-), (.personatus: see personate, v.} 
The act of personating, or of counterfeiting 
the person or character of another ; imperson- 
ation False personation, in law, the offense of per- 
sonating another for the purpose of fraud. 
personator (per'son-a-tor), n. [< personate + 
-or 1 .} One who assumes the character of an- 
other ; one who plays a part. 
personeity (per-so-ne'i-ti),. [(person + -e-ity.} 
Personality. [Rare.] 
The personeity of God. Coleridge. (Webster.) 
personification (per-son'1-fi-ka'shon), n. [= 
F. personnification = Sp. personificacion = Pg. 
personificaycCo = It. personificazione,<N"L. *per- 
sonificatio(n-), < *personifieare, personify: see 
personify.} 1. The act of personifying ; specifi- 
cally, in rhet., a figure of speech, or a species of 
metaphor, which consists in representing inani- 
mate objects or abstract notions as endued with 
life and action, or possessing the attributes of 
living beings: prosopopoeia: as, "the floods clap 
their hands," "the sun rejoieeth as a strong 
man to run a race," "the mountains and the 
hills shall break forth into singing," etc. 
The sage, the satirist, and the seer . . . veiled his head 
in allegory ; he published no other names than those of 
the virtues and the vices; and, to avoid personality, he 
contented himself with personification. 
1. D'Israeli, Amen, of Lit, I. 217. 
Personification. The " Church of Christ," from the west front of the 
Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris (i3th century sculpture). 
vice, or of an aggregation, as a race or nation, 
a body of doctrines, etc. 
personificati ve (per-son'i-fi-ka-tiv), a. [< per- 
sonificat(ion) + -ive.} Pertaining to personi- 
fication; characterized by a tendency to per- 
sonification or the act of personifying. 
personificator (per-son'i-fi-ka-tor), n. [< per- 
sonificat(ion) + -or 1 .} One who is given to per- 
sonifying qualities or inanimate things ; a per- 
sonifier. Soiithey. 
personifier (per-son'i-fi-er), n. [(personify + 
-erl.} One who personifies. 
personify (per-son'i-fi), v. t. ; pret. and pp. per- 
sonified, ppr. personifying. [= F. personnifier 
= Sp. Pg. personificar = It.personificare, < NL. 
personificare, < L. persona, a person (see per- 
son), + facere, make.] 1. To treat or regard as 
a person; represent as a rational being; treat, 
for literary purposes, as if endowed with the 
sentiments, actions, or language of a rational 
being or person, or, for artistic purposes, as if 
having a human form and nature. 
The life and action of the body being ascribed to a soul, 
all other phenomena of the universe were in like manner 
ascribed to soul-like beings or spirits, which are thus, in 
f act, personified causes. Encyc. Brit., II. 56. 
2. To impersonate; be an impersonation or 
embodiment of: as, he personifies all that is 
mean. 
perspnization (per"son-i-za'shon), n. [< per- 
sonize + -ation.} Same as impersonation or per- 
sonification. Also spelled personisation. 
perspnize (per'son-iz), v. t. ; pret. and pp. per- 
sonized, ppr. personizing. [< person + -ize.} 
To personify. Also spelled personise. [Bare.] 
Milton has personized them [Orcus and Ades] and put 
them in the Court of Chaos. 
J. Richardson, Notes on Milton, p. 84. 
If you would make Fortune your friend, or, to personise 
her no longer, if you desire ... to be rich, ... be 
more eager to save than acquire. 
Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, Ixx. 
personnel (per-so-nel'), [F., < personnel, a. : 
see 2>ersonal.} The body of persons employed 
in any service, especially a public service, as 
the army, navy, etc., in contradistinction to 
the materiel, or material, which consists of 
guns, stores, tools, machines, etc. 
Persoonia (per-so'ni-a), n. [NL. (Sir J. E. 
Smith, 1798), after C'. H. Persoon (died 1836), 
author of " Synopsis Plantarum" (1805-7).] A 
genus of apetalous shrubs of the order Protea- 
ceee, type of the tribe Persooniese, characterized 
by the four distinct scales upon the stalked 
ovary, and the two pendulous ovules. There are 60 
species, all Australian, except one which is found in New 
Zealand. They bear undivided alternate leathery leaves, 
small yellow or white flowers, usually solitary in the axils, 
and pulpy drupes with an extremely hard and thick stone. 
P. Toro, a small evergreen tree, is known in New Zealand 
perspective 
as tiiro. Many species are cultivated under glass, chiefly 
for the brilliant yellow flowers. 
Persoonieae (per-sij-ui'e-e), n. pi. [>L. (End- 
licher, 1836), < Persoonia + -ex.} A tribe of 
apetalous plants of the order Protcaccee and the 
series Suvumentacete, distinguished by the two 
ovules, the perfect anthers, and the unequal 
seed-leaves commonly much thickened. It in- 
cludes 8 genera 7 Australian and 1 African, 
perspective (per-spek'tiv, formerly also per'- 
spek-tiv), a. and n. [I. a. < F. perspectif = Pr. 
perspectiu = Sp. Pg. perspective = It. prospet- 
tivo, < ML. as if "perspcctivus, < L. perspectus, 
pp. of perspicere, see through, < per, through, + 
specere, see. II. n. < F. perspective, the perspec- 
tive art, = Sp. Pg. perspectira = It. persj>etliva, 
prospettiva = D. perspektief = G. perspectiv = 
Sw. Dan. perspektiv, < ML. "perupcctira, fern, 
(sc. ars) of * perspectives: see above.] I. a. 1. 
Optical ; used in viewing or prospecting : used 
especially in the phrase perspective glass that 
is, a telescope, and specifically a terrestrial as 
distinguished from an astronomical telescope. 
Galilseus, a worthy astrologer, ... by the help of per- 
spective glasses hath found in the stars many things un- 
known to the ancients. Raleigh, Hist. World, I. 193. 
God's perspective glass, his spectacle, is the whole world. 
Donne, Sermons, ii. 
A Cane with a Silver Head and a Black Ribbon in it, the 
top of it Amber, crack'd in two or three places, part of the 
Head to tuni round, and in it a Perspective Glass. 
Quoted in Ashton's Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, 
[I. 158. 
2. Of or pertaining to the art of representing 
solid objects upon a flat surface. 3. Bepre- 
sented in perspective ; thoroughly and duly pro- 
portioned in its parts ; not anamorphous or dis- 
torted; true: as, a, perspective plan. See II. 
To recommend this system to the people, a perspective 
view of the court, gorgeously painted and finely illumi- 
nated from within, was exhibited to the gaping multitude. 
Burke, Present Discontents. 
Perspective glass*. See def. l. Perspective shell, a 
ptenoglossate gastropod, Solarium perspectimtm ; the sun- 
dial shell. 
II. n. If. A reflecting glass or combination 
of glasses producing some kind of optical delu- 
sion or anamorphous effect when viewed in one 
way, but presenting objects in their true forms 
when viewed in another. 
Like perspectives, which, rightly gazed upon, 
Show nothing but confusion, eyed awry 
Distinguish form. Shak., Rich. II., ii. 2. 18. 
A picture of a chancellor of France presented to the 
common beholder a multitude of little faces ; but if one 
did look at it through a perspective there appeared only 
the single pourtraicture of the chancellor. 
Humane Industry. (Nares.) 
2t. A magnifying-glass ; a telescope; a spy- 
glass. 
To spie my worth, as I have scene ilimnie eyes 
To looke through spectacles, or perspectives. 
Heywood, Epilogue (Works, ed. Pearson, VI. 353). 
I bring 
A perspective, to make those things that lie 
Remote from sense familiar to thee. 
Shirley, Wedding, iv. 4. 
Two embroidered suits, a pocket perspective, a dozen 
pair of red-heeled shoes, three pair of red silk stockings, 
and an amber-headed cane. Steele, Tatler, No. 113. 
3. The art of representing solid objects on a 
flat surface so that when they are viewed the 
eye is affected in the same manner as it would 
be by viewing the objects themselves from a 
given point. By perspective, in common language, is 
meant linear perspective, or the art of delineating the out- 
lines of objects, of their shadows, and of their reflections. 
The theory is that the positions of the delineated points 
in the picture are such that if rays, or straight lines, 
were drawn from the corresponding original points in the 
natural objects to the eye of the spectator, and if the pic- 
ture were then interposed in the right position, it would 
be pierced by these rays at the points of delineation. It 
follows that perspective supposes that a picture is to be 
looked at with one eye placed in a particular position ; 
and if it be otherwise looked at, the perspective necessarily 
appears false. This position of the eye, called the ittatwn- 
, 
ne ; , ts rectng ne ; , vanishing plane of original plane 
KCDL; DC, its intersecting line: AR, its vanishing line; HG. its 
directing line: C, intersecting point of line CA"; A, its vanishing 
point; G, its directing point ; KG, its director; AC, its delineation. 
point, or point of siyht (which phrase with old writers has, 
however, another meaning), is, according to thu directions 
of most treatises, placed mnch too near the picture to 
represent the mean position of a person looking at it. Ar- 
