Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A character in a literary work.
  • noun A person.
  • noun A person of distinction. synonym: celebrity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A person represented; a rôle or part assumed or played; a character.
  • noun A person; an individual; especially, a man or woman of importance or distinction.
  • noun Bodily form; external appearrance; person.
  • noun Synonyms 2. Individual, etc. See person.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Form, appearance, or belongings of a person; the external appearance, stature, figure, air, and the like, of a person.
  • noun Character assumed or represented.
  • noun A notable or distinguished person; a conspicuous or peculiar character

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun : A famous or important person.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person whose actions and opinions strongly influence the course of events
  • noun another word for person; a person not meriting identification

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, person, from Old French, from persone, person; see person.]

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Examples

  • One of these heroines was Andromache, the title personage of "The

    The Palmy Days of Nance Oldfield Edward Robins 1902

  • I have clicked on "follow" and discover that the Twitter "personage" is in fact a website called Scandinavian Crime Fiction: your foray into Northern deviance.

    Websites Maxine 2009

  • I have clicked on "follow" and discover that the Twitter "personage" is in fact a website called Scandinavian Crime Fiction: your foray into Northern deviance.

    Have I finally found something useful on Twitter? Maxine 2009

  • I have clicked on "follow" and discover that the Twitter "personage" is in fact a website called Scandinavian Crime Fiction: your foray into Northern deviance.

    May 2009 Maxine 2009

  • I have clicked on "follow" and discover that the Twitter "personage" is in fact a website called Scandinavian Crime Fiction: your foray into Northern deviance.

    PETRONA Maxine 2009

  • I have clicked on "follow" and discover that the Twitter "personage" is in fact a website called Scandinavian Crime Fiction: your foray into Northern deviance.

    Have I finally found something useful on Twitter? Maxine 2009

  • Suppose you should have drawn your first breath among the _lower classes_, -- suppose it should have been your lot to crouch and bend, or be trodden under foot by some titled personage, whom in your heart you despised; what then?

    Sanders' Union Fourth Reader Charles W. Sanders

  • So far as egotism is concerned, he was clearly anticipated by the titled personage to whom I have referred, who says of himself, "I am the first in the East, the first in the West, and the greatest philosopher in the Western world."

    Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • So far as egotism is concerned, he was clearly anticipated by the titled personage to whom

    Over the Teacups Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • This noted personage is a Eutaw by birth, but forsook his own people and joined the Py-Euts, after he became a man, and by his prowess and bravery, acquired such an ascendency over the tribe of his adoption, as to become their principal chief.

    Life in the Rocky Mountains 1844

Comments

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  • Is there a difference between a personage and a person? Can I be one and not the other, i.e. are all personages people and all people personaages? And how many personages reside in parsonages?

    November 17, 2007

  • An easy way to sort it out: The parson is the personage of the parsonage, but not every person in a parsonage is a personage.

    December 20, 2007