persona

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A social role.
  2. A character played by an actor.
  3. The mask or appearance one presents to the world.
  4. An imaginary person representing a particular type of client or customer, considered when designing products and services that will appeal to them.

Pronunciation

/pɝˈsoʊnə/ /pɜːˈsəʊnə/ /pəˈsəʊnə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-persona.wav

Word forms

persona personas personae personæ

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin persōna (“mask; character”), of uncertain origin. Suggested to be from Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask; masked individual; actor”), which could be a loan from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon, “face; appearance; mask used in ancient theatre to denote a character or, more generally, a social role”). Doublet of person and parson.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.