| 释义 |
personal, a. (n.)|ˈpɜːsənəl|
Also 4–5 -el, etc., 6 parsonal(l.
[a. OF. personal (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), -el (mod.F. -onnel), ad. L. persōnāl-is of or pertaining to a person (in Law or Gram.), f. persōna person: see -al1.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of, pertaining to, concerning, or affecting the individual person or self (as opposed, variously, to other persons, the general community, etc., or to one's office, rank, or other attributes); individual; private; one's own. Rarely in reference to an animal (quot. 1796).
personal equation, personal identity: see these words.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 115 Seruius Tullius..ordeyned first personal tribute [L. censum] to þe Romayns. 1565J. Calfhill Answ. Treat. Cross vi. 135 Examples be daungerous to be followed..bycause they be sometime but personall. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. ii. i. 11, I know no personall cause, to spurne at him, But for the generall. 1683Col. Rec. Pennsylv. I. 236 Know no reason why they might not give their personal bills to such as would take them as money to pass. 1782Ld. Auckland Let. 22 Aug. (1861) I. 29 Lord North, too, could on very easy terms answer for thirty or forty, quite as personal friends and followers. a1794Gibbon Mem. (1796) I. 71 Mr. Allamand, Minister at Bex, was my personal friend. 1796Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) I. 79 Even the instincts of animals appear to be less adapted to their own personal utility, than to that of Man. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 182 Although dignities are now become little more than personal honours; yet they are still classed under the head of real property. 1845M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 18 It required all the personal influence of the king to check the turbulence of his irritated followers. 1853C. Brontë Villette I. xv. 304 Had that audience numbered as many personal friends and acquaintance for me, as for him, I know not how it might have been. 1915T. F. A. Smith Soul of Germany 54 Opponents are often personal friends, but that makes no difference. 1938Auden & Isherwood On Frontier i. i. 24 The Valerian School..will educate your dear little kiddies in Patriotism and Personal Hygiene. 1970Guardian 17 Aug. 7/5 Much propaganda about ‘personal hygiene’ is on the wrong track... Why the obsession with stopping fresh perspiration? 1979D. Attenborough Life on Earth xi. 248 The sloth..pays such little attention to its personal hygiene that green algae grow on its coarse hair.
b. Const. to (cf. proper to, peculiar to).
a1768Erskine Inst. Law Scot. i. iv. §12. 58 The jurisdiction annexed to the principality is not heritable, but personal to the King's eldest son. 1844Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) I. ii. 61 The authority..was personal to Augustine, and not intended to descend from him to his successors. 1874S. Wilberforce Ess. I. 376 This is personal to himself.
c. Designating an official or employee attached to one's person in a subordinate capacity, as personal assistant, personal maid, etc.
1928Radio Times 2 Nov. 301/3 My personal maid..[was] sent to service at 11 years. 1941in G. Howell In Vogue (1975) 162 A personal maid..is absent, on munitions. 1956Times 21 Jan. 7/5 An adequate type of skilled secretarial assistant could be ensured by certain responsible bodies..holding examinations for executive secretaries/personal assistants (as opposed to company secretaries). 1958P. Scott Mark of Warrior i. 21 ‘These chaps are your personal servants,’ the receiving officer explained. 1964M. Laski in S. Nowell-Smith Edwardian Eng. iv. 144 Personal servants at least must wait up until their masters and mistresses chose to go to bed. 1972T. P. McMahon Issue of Bishop's Blood iv. 44 Frank Velandi..three arrests for assault... Said at one time to be Streppelli's personal bodyguard. 1977A. Scholefield Venom v. 198 M. Michel Blanchet, the hotel millionaire wanted a personal maid for his new wife. 1978W. Garner Möbius Trip i. 21 Hand over the mouthpiece she called ‘Prime Minister's personal assistant’.
2. a. Done, made, performed, held, etc. in person; involving the actual or immediate presence or action of the individual person himself (as opposed to a substitute, deputy, messenger, etc.). Of a reciprocal action or relation, Carried on or subsisting between individual persons directly.
c1388in Wyclif's Sel. Wks. III. 493 Þai sayne, þat no persone ne vicare ne prelate is excusud fro personele residense to be made in þer beneficys. 1494Fabyan Chron. II. an. 1407 (R.) With great dyffyculte he pacyfyed them agayn..and brought them to personall communycacion. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. ii. i. 32 Tell him, the daughter of the King of France..Importunes personall conference with his grace. 1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 387 The one was their personall presence and travelling to the wars. 1733C. Coote 13 Dec. in Swift's Lett. (1768) IV. 59 Your allowing me to some degree of personal acquaintance with you. 1844Thirlwall Greece lxiv. VIII. 263 The wealthier citizens..bound by law to personal service in the cavalry. 1880L. Stephen Pope iv. 85 Pope..did not enjoy the honour of any personal interview with royalty.
†b. Present or engaged in person. Obs.
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iv. iii. 88 When hee was personall in the Irish Warre. 1600E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 152 Kings ought to be personall in their enterprises. 1617Moryson Itin. ii. 211 None but we that are personall actors therein..can thorowly apprehend [etc.].
3. Of or pertaining to one's person, body, or figure; bodily:
a. as an action or quality. † personal oath (quot. 1577–87): = bodily or corporal oath (see corporal a. 5 a).
a1400–50Alexander 5142 A purtrayour..scho prays with þam to pas, And his personele proporcions in perchemen hire bring. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. III. 1 He tooke his personall oth before the altar of S. Peter at Westmister, to defend the holie church, and rulers of the same. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. iv. 8 Our Nauie is addressed, our Power collected... Onely wee want a little personall Strength. 1620R. Brathwait Five Senses in Archaica II. 82 It is..a personal comeliness, adds honour to our clothing. 1716Addison Freeholder No. 21 ⁋3 A Princess whose Personal Charms..were now become the least part of her Character. 1865Lubbock Preh. Times 21 The personal ornaments of the Bronze age consist principally of bracelets,..pins,..and rings.
b. as something affecting or having reference to one's person or body.
1591Horsey Trav. (Hakl. Soc.) 165 The Russ Emperor flies with his..personall guard of 20 thowsand gonnors, towards a stronge monesterie. 1765Blackstone Comm. I. i. 141 Three great and primary rights, of personal security, personal liberty, and private property. 1782F. Burney Cecilia viii. iv, Turning their attention to her personal safety. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 228 Designed..for the purpose of personal defence. 1824Scott Redgauntlet ch. xvi, He shall have no personal ill-usage. 1861Mill Utilit. (1862) 65 It is..considered unjust to deprive any one of his personal liberty.
4. a. Having an individual person as object; relating to a person in his individual capacity; directed to, aimed at, or referring to some particular person or to oneself personally, spec. in a disparaging or offensive sense or manner.
1614T. Lorkin Let. in Crt. & Times Jas. I (1848) I. 346 If they had..not proceeded to personal invectives, and mutinous and seditious speeches against his majesty,..his favourites, and..the Scots in general. a1729J. Rogers (J.), Publick reproofs of sin are general..; but in private conversations the application may be more personal. 1801Med. Jrnl. V. 264 A dispute, which, by the conduct of my opponent, has degenerated into personal abuse. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xi, He asked him distinctly,..as a personal favour too,..not to play. 1863H. Cox Instit. i. iv. 19 Private Acts of Parliament are divided into those which are personal and those which are local. 1888J. Inglis Tent Life in Tigerland 236, I seemed to take it as a personal insult that anybody..amid all the depressing surroundings, should dare to be cheerful.
b. Const. to (cf. relative to, etc.).
c1680Hickeringill Hist. Whiggism i. Wks. 1716 I. 56 The Earl of Arundel was restrained for a Misdemeanour, which was Personal to his Majesty. 1814Scott Wav. xliii, He [the Prince] had a different and good natured motive, personal to our hero, for prolonging the conference.
c. Having oneself as object; directed to oneself.
1778F. Burney Evelina xxx, They have every one of them so copious a share of their own personal esteem. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I, III. iv. 60 The strong personal vanity of the man.
d. transf. Making a personal remark, reflection, or attack; addicted to such remarks, etc.
1607B. Jonson Volpone Ded., Where have I been particular? where personal? except to a mimic, cheater [etc.]. 1855Tennyson Maud i. x. ii, And therefore splenetic, personal, base, A wounded thing with a rancorous cry. 1882C. Pebody Eng. Journalism xxiii. 187 Punch..is racy, frank, and personal to a degree that often perplexes foreigners.
e. Of newspaper advertisements: small, on private matters (see also quot. 1902); esp. in personal column.
1888W. Whitman Daybks. & Notebks. (1978) II. 448 Letter from J. G. Bennett, N.Y. Herald, ask'g me to write for ‘Personal’ col Herald. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 173/2 ‘Personal journalism’, i.e., paragraphs about the private life or personal appearance of individuals..of note or notoriety in society or public affairs, has become far more marked. 1936Discovery Dec. 386/1 The 18th century ‘personal’ advertisement, dealing with such wants as wives, lost umbrellas, or menservants ‘of black complexion and sound principles’. 1948Chicago Daily News 30 Aug. 19/3 German newspapers have ‘personal’ columns filled with advertisements for mates. 1966Listener 6 Jan. 14/2 Most of its members were gathered by putting an advertisement in the personal column of a daily newspaper. 1978J. Wainwright Ripple of Murders 11 A small ad. in the Personal Column..will read ‘J.D. Message received’.
f. Of a letter or other communication: intended for the attention of a particular recipient.
1934G. B. Shaw Too True to be Good ii. 50 Is this a personal letter to be sent on to him, or is it a dispatch? 1940R. S. Lambert Ariel & all his Quality ix. 244 A letter was delivered..addressed ‘H. Brown, Esq., Broadcasting House’. It was not marked ‘Personal’ or ‘Private’. 1973‘D. Jordan’ Nile Green i. 9 A stack of letters was open on my desk including..two which must have been marked ‘Personal’ on the envelope. 1978J. Symons Blackheath Poisonings v. 241 The rectangular package was addressed..to Mr George Collard, and marked Personal.
g. Of a (transistor) radio or television: small (see quot. 1962).
1962Which? Feb. 36/1 The two main categories are: personal radios, which will slip into a pocket—or are just too large to do so—and portable radios, which have to be carried. 1973Philadelphia Inquirer 7 Oct. 16 (Advt.), Personal size 16{pp} diagonal screen.
h. Of a computer: designed for use by an individual, esp. in an office or business environment.
1976Byte May 90/2 You can do such modelling..using the personal computer as a central element. 1979Personal Computer World Nov. 44/3 Denmark's personal computer industry has software for us. 1983Your Computer (Austral.) Aug. 4 A personal computer..is a microprocessor-based machine with integrated video circuitry (or even screen) and keyboard, which is dedicated to use by a single person, and the software for which reflects the needs of a single person and not an organisation. 1985Listener 17 Jan. 22/3 There are 400 word processor programs to choose from, and a vast range of personal computers.
5. a. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a person or self-conscious being, as opposed to a thing or abstraction.
1651Hobbes Leviath. iii. xxxiii. 206 If the Church be not one person, then it hath no authority at all,..nor has any will, reason nor voice: for all these qualities are personal. 1659Pearson Creed (1839) 435 Grief is certainly a personal affection, of which a quality is not capable. 1835Ure Philos Manuf. 5 At least double the amount of personal industry is engaged in the arts, manufactures, and trade, to what is engaged in agriculture. 1877E. R. Conder Bas. Faith i. 26 This unity is not..possessed of what we call personality; incapable therefore of sustaining any personal relation to man.
b. Having the nature of a person; that is a person, not a thing or abstraction.
a1860J. A. Alexander Gosp. Jesus Christ xxxvi. (1861) 533 It is not before a mere abstraction that man trembles, but before a personal avenger. 1860Pusey Min. Proph., Amos v. 21 Worshipping ‘nature’, not a holy, Personal, God. 1880Haughton Phys. Geog. i. 1 Imagining..a personal creator of themselves and of the universe.
6. Law. Opposed to real:
†a. originally, in personal action (or personal plea), an action wherein the claim was not the restitution of a specific thing (since the thing might be destroyed, concealed, or transported beyond the reach of the law) but the recovery from the person concerned of compensation, i.e. of damages; distinguished from a real action, which claimed the restitution of the thing itself (being something indestructible and irremovable), and from a mixed action in which both restitution and damages were demanded. (This distinction is Obs., real actions having fallen out of use early in 17th c., and been formally abolished in 1833. See Sweet Dict. Eng. Law 24.) Hence
b. personal property (personal estate, etc.), things recoverable in the personalty or by a personal action, i.e. chattels and chattel interests in land, etc., as opposed to real property (estate, etc.), i.e. things recoverable in the realty, or by a real action; viz. land (in the legal sense: see land 4 c), and rights attached to the possession of land. personal property therefore includes generally all property except land and those interests in land which pass on the owner's death to his heir; corresponding in general (though not entirely) to the movables of Scotch, Continental, and Anglo-Indian law.
Personal and real action represent L. actio in personam and actio in rem of the Roman law, in which actions were distinguished by the nature of the right thereby asserted; the terms were taken by Bracton into English Law, but employed in a different way, to distinguish actions according to the process of execution obtained, that is, in reference not to the right asserted but to the relief afforded therein. The thing sought by Britton's actio in rem was restitution of a specific thing which the law was always able to lay hold of and hand over; this limited it to land and rights exercisable over or in respect of land. But land and its rights were hereditary possessions, descending to the owner's heirs, hence real property became coextensive with or equivalent to heritable property, and personal property came to include all other property; this again reacted upon the definition, inasmuch as the question whether any particular property was hereditary and passed to the heir, or was non-hereditary and passed to the executors or administrators, became the test whether the property or estate was real or personal; so that certain rights attached to land, came to be treated as real or personal, not according to the original application of these words, but according to the rule which had been established as to the descent of these rights severally. Thus leases, of whatever duration, as well as mortgages and securities for money affecting lands or heritable property, which in Scotland are themselves heritable and descend to the heir, in England go to the personal representative, and are classed as personal estate. (See T. Cyprian Williams in Law Quarterly IV. (1888); Pollock and Maitland Hist. Eng. Law II. 179–80, 568–70.)
a. [c1250Bracton iii. iii. §2 Personales vero actiones sunt quæ competunt contra aliquem ex contractu, vel quasi. 1292Britton ii. i. §1 Personels pletz pledables par attachementz de cors ou destresces des biens moebles. a1294Hengham Summa Parva i. (1616) 81 Post defaltam in actione Reali, non competit in personali.] 1448Shillingford's Lett. (Camden) App. 139 Any action real personall and myxte apon any person or persons. c1450Godstow Reg. 304 Relesed to them and pardoned all accions reals and personels of eny maner cause I-begonne. 1544tr. Littleton's Tenures iii. iv. 73 b, Also as to accyons parsonels, tenauntes in comon ought to haue suche accyons parsonels Ioyntly in all theyr names. 1768Blackstone Comm. III. viii. 117 Personal actions are such whereby a man claims a debt, or personal duty, or damages in lieu thereof: and, likewise, whereby a man claims a satisfaction in damages for some injury done to his person or property. 1888T. C. Williams in Law Quarterly Rev. IV. 401 Before the year 1832, the plaintiff in a personal action could never obtain final judgment against the defendant in default of appearance.
b. [a1481Littleton Tenures §497 En mesme le manere est de choses personelx. 1481Year-bk. 21 Edw. IV (1599) 83 b, Cest annuitie est un chose personal.] 1544tr. Littleton's Tenures iii. iv. 74 There be possessyons and propertyes of Chatell reall and Chatell parsonal. 1622Bacon Hen. VII 123 Jewels, household-stuff, stocks upon his grounds, and other personal estate exceeding great. 1650in Bury Wills (Camden) 226 The rest and residue of all my goods and personall estate whatsoeuer..I doe will vnto my executours towards the payment of my debts and legacies aforesaid. 1766Blackstone Comm. II. i. 13 In personal estates the father may succeed to his children; in landed property he never can be their immediate heir, by any the remotest possiblility. Ibid. xxiv. 385 But things personal, by our law, do not only include things moveable, but also something more: the whole of which is comprehended under the general name of chattels. 1838W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 735 In the law of England, the distinction between real and personal property, is almost, but not entirely, the same as the distinction between heritable and movable property in the law of Scotland. 1844Williams Real Prop. (1875) 8 Funded property is personal. 1888[see personalty]. 1895Maitland Bracton & Azo (Selden Soc.) 173 It has been suggested that had Bracton looked a little deeper, we might have had no talk of ‘real’ and ‘personal’ property. 1895Pollock & Maitland Hist. Eng. Law II. 180 When our orthodox doctrine has come to be that land is not owned, but that ‘real actions’ can be brought for it, while no ‘real action’ can be brought for just those things which are the subjects of ‘absolute ownership’, it is clear enough that the ‘personalness’ of ‘personal property’ is a superficial phenomenon.
c. personal contract, personal injury, personal law, personal representative: see quots.
1796A. Anstruther Reports I. 131 The personal representative is in general considered as trustee of the property devised from the testator, undisposed of, as belonging to him. 1832Russell & Mylne Rep. Cases Chancery 1829–30 I. 589 The ordinary sense of the words ‘personal representatives’ is, executors and administrators. 1882C. Sweet Dict. Eng. Law 200 A personal contract is one which depends upon the existence, or the personal qualities, skill, or services of one of the parties: such as a contract of marriage, or a contract to paint a picture. It follows from the nature of a personal contract that it cannot be assigned, and that it is discharged by the death of the party on whose personality it is founded. Ibid. 602 A personal injury is an injury to the person of an individual, such as an assault, as opposed to an injury to his property, such as a trespass. Ibid., A system of laws is said to be personal, when its operation is limited to one of several races inhabiting a state, as in the case of India. 1883Wharton's Law Lex. 725/1 An heir-at-law or devisee is a real representative; an executor or administrator is a personal representative. [But the executor has been made a ‘real representative’ for some purposes, by the Land Transfer Act, 1897 (Sir F. Pollock).] 1967E. Rudinger Wills & Probate 40 The people who deal with what you own when you die are called your personal representatives.
d. personal diligence, personal execution (Scots Law): (a) the process for enforcing performance of civil obligations by imprisonment of the debtor (opposed to diligence or execution against estate heritable or movable); now abolished, exc. in exceptional cases; (b) also used to include attachment of debtor's movables, as well as imprisonment (opposed to real diligence, i.e. against heritable estate).
a1768Erskine Inst. Law Scot. iv. iii. §24 The power of staying the execution of personal diligence might, if abused, greatly impair the right competent to creditors for the recovery of their debts. 1838W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 304 Personal diligence comprehends, 1st. Letters of Horning and of Caption..2d...the meditatio fugæ warrant..3d. The Border Warrant. 1861Ibid. 287/2 The use of these letters [of Horning] is almost entirely superseded by the Personal Diligence Act, 1 and 2 Vict., c. 114, which authorizes warrant to charge, arrest, and poind to be inserted in extract decrees. 1886Goudy Law of Bankruptcy 644 By the Debtors' Act, 1880, and the Civil Imprisonment Act, 1882, personal diligence has been, with a few unimportant exceptions, altogether abolished.
7. Gram. Of or pertaining to the three persons; denoting one of these: see person n. 8. spec.
a. said of a verb that has inflexions for all three persons (opp. to impers.: now rare);
b. used as the distinctive appellation of those pronouns which denote the first, second, and third persons respectively, viz. (in English) I, you, he, in their various genders, numbers, and cases.
1530Palsgr. 4 Verbes..as well personall as il prent..as impersonall as il couient. 1590J. Stockwood Rules Construct. 6 A verbe personal agreeth with his nominatiue case in number and person. 1668Wilkins Real Char. 305 The Personal Pronouns, and any of the rest being us'd Substantively, are capable of Number and Case. 1871Roby Lat. Gram. ii. xvii. §562 In the perfect indicative the personal suffix has dropped off altogether. 1879Farrar St. Paul I. 579 The needlessly frequent prominence of the first personal pronoun. 1889Morfill Gram. Russ. Lang. iii. 53 Sometimes personal verbs are used impersonally by an idiom in which all the Slavonic languages share, as [mne khóchetsya], I wish, lit. it wishes itself to me.
†8. Theol. Of or pertaining to substance (see person n. 7 b): = hypostatic 1. Obs.
1548Gest Pr. Masse in H. G. Dugdale Life (1840) App. i. 87 Soch..is the personal presence of christes godheade in hys manhode. 1624Gataker Transubst. 168 When as by personal union with himselfe, he giveth to the same body a far higher and more inconceivable manner of being.
¶9. Often (by confusion) for personable a. 1.
1658Topsell's Four-f. Beasts 40 A goodly well proportioned and personal [ed. 1607 personable] Prince. c1760Charlton Ho. Papers in Sussex Archæol. Collect. X. 47, I am told that the lad is very personal with his own hair. 1888Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Thro' Long Night i. viii, She..made him out at last to be really quite personal and presentable.
10. Special collocations, as personal appearance, (a) the appearance or presence of an individual (esp. a celebrity) in person; (b) the visual aspect or looks of a person, considered in terms of dress, grooming, and expression; personal bill, a private bill (bill n.3 3) usu. introduced in the House of Lords, relating to the estate, status, or other personal concern of an individual (see also quot. 1844); personal call, a telephone call in which the caller specifies to the operator the person to whom he wishes to speak, and only the time so spent is charged for (in addition to a fixed service charge); personal caller, a prospective client who establishes personal contact with a business; personal explanation, a statement made by a Member of the House of Commons in explanation or mitigation of recent conduct; personal god, a god possessing personal attributes; personal government, autocratic rule in which effective power is vested in the person of a monarch (commonly associated with the reign of George III); personal idealism, philosophical idealism which emphasizes the essential role of the conscious person in relation to perception of external reality and, usu., also in relation to God as supreme Person; akin to personalism b; hence personal idealist; personal loan, a loan made to an individual for his private requirements by a finance company or bank; personal name, the name by which an individual (occas. a thing) is distinguished or identified; personal shopper, one who shops in person, as opposed to by mail-order; personal touch, a personal element introduced into something otherwise institutional or impersonal.
1610S. Rid Martin Mark-all sig. A 3, They presently send to the Beadle of the Hall to make his personal appearance at the Swan with five necks in Kings Streete. 1736M. W. Montagu Let. Dec. (1966) II. 111 Halfe those aspirations to the B.V. would deserve her personal appearance to encourrage so sincere a Votary. 1842Dickens Amer. Notes I. viii. 277 Comparing notes on my personal appearance with as much indifference as if I were a stuffed figure. 1883[see appearance 2]. 1914G. B. Shaw Fanny's First Play 152 Mr Trotter..assisted the make-up by which Mr Claude King so successfully simulated his personal appearance. 1951S. J. Perelman in New Yorker 2 June 26/3, I caught your personal appearance at the Mastbaum in Philly. 1962L. Deighton Ipcress File xvi. 92 A cinema where a nineteen-year-old rock-an'-roll singer was making a personal appearance for {pstlg}600. 1972N.Y. Law Jrnl. 22 Aug. 8/1 Personal Appearances..Ping Keun Chu v. Jade Fountain of Paramus, Inc. [etc.]. 1976T. Heald Let Sleeping Dogs Die i. 7 She had little time for clothes and cared nothing for her personal appearance.
[1683Personal bill: see personal a. 1 a.] 1844T. E. May Treat. Parliament xxviii. 457 All private bills, during their progress in the commons, are known by the general denomination of private bills; but in the lords the term ‘private’ is applied technically to estate bills only, all other bills being distinguished as ‘local’ or ‘personal’, although in the standing orders no such distinction is expressed. 1929G. F. M. Campion Introd. Proc. House of Commons ix. 274 Personal Bills, i.e. Estate, Divorce, Naturalisation, Restitution and Name Bills..always originate in the Lords. 1973Jrnl. House of Lords (1974) 14 Nov. CCVI. 29/2 Personal Bills: Select Comee appointed.
1930Telegr. & Telephone Jrnl. XVI. 70/2 Another important event of the past year was the introduction of the ‘personal’ call system in the Inland and Anglo-Continental trunk services. 1947Auden Age of Anxiety (1948) ii. 43 To be held waiting in A packed lounge for a Personal Call From Long Distance. 1960[see person-to-person adj. (and adv.) phr. a]. 1967E. Lemarchand Death of Old Girl ii. 21 There's a phone call for you... A personal call from London. 1978F. Durbridge Tim Frazer gets Message iv. 61 Can Miss Thackery take a personal call?
1966Listener 25 Aug. 291 (Advt.), Send now for a free copy... For personal callers—235 Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Sq., W.C.2. Tel.: WHItehall 8377. 1976Norwich Mercury 19 Nov. 12/5 (Advt.), Personal callers will be welcomed by a receptionist at Prospect House.
1844T. E. May Treat. Parliament xi. 195 (heading) Personal explanation. 1857Sat. Rev. 14 Feb. 152/2 That green oasis in the desert of legislation—that dainty morsel in the sessional banquet—a personal explanation, which, in Mr. Disraeli's hands, was pretty sure to include also a personal attack. 1886J. Bailey Let. 11 Apr. (1935) 24, I might say a good deal on this subject but as the House of Commons has lately made personal explanations vulgar, I don't think I will. 1974House of Commons Man. Procedure Publ. Business (ed. 11) viii. 116 By the indulgence of the House, a Member may make a personal explanation, although there is no question before the House, but in this case no debatable matter may be brought forward, and no debate can arise.
1860Personal God [see sense 5 b]. a1902S. Butler Way of All Flesh (1903) xlix. 225 There is not one of you here who doubts the existence of a Personal God. 1921G. B. Shaw Back to Methuselah p. xlii, We had been so oppressed by the notion that everything that happened in the world was the arbitrary personal act of an arbitrary personal god of dangerously jealous and cruel personal character, so that even the relief of the pains of childbed and the operating table by chloroform was objected to as interference with his arrangements which he would probably resent, that we just jumped at Darwin. 1963J. A. T. Robinson Honest to God iii. 48 The difference..can perhaps best be expressed by asking what is meant by speaking of a personal God. Theism..understands by this a supreme Person, a self-existent subject.., who enters into a relationship with us comparable with that of one human personality with another. 1976P. Hill Hunters vi. 73 An allegedly all-powerful and personal God.
1909W. Toynbee Glimpses of Twenties i. 1 George the Third..ascended the throne with a fixed determination to re-establish ‘personal government’, which quickly aroused the misgivings of even his best-affected subjects. 1954Proc. Brit. Acad. XXXVIII. 225 We no longer believe that George III's system of personal government came to an end in 1784, and that power was then transferred from the King to the Prime Minister.
1901G. H. Howison (title) The limits of evolution, and other essays illustrating the metaphysical theory of personal idealism. 1921Encycl. Relig. & Ethics XII. 229/2 Where personal idealism means spiritual pluralism of a theistic type, the concept of purpose applied to the interpretation of the universe yields a conclusion that satisfies. 1966F. Copleston Hist. Philos. VIII. iii. xiii. 296 It is so often religiously minded people who are attracted in the first instance to personal idealism.
1902H. Sturt Personal Idealism p. vi, Naturalism and Absolutism, then, are the adversaries against whom the personal idealist has to strive. 1966F. Copleston Hist. Philos. VIII. iii. xiii. 296 Unless the personal idealist equates ultimate reality with the system of finite selves, as McTaggart did, he must be a theist.
1914Laws State of N.Y. II. 1435 When authorized by the superintendent of banks..three or more persons..may form a corporation to be known as a personal loan company. 1957D. Karp Leave me Alone v. 80 Individual enterprisers offered..dry cleaning, baked goods..personal loans. 1958Times 29 Aug. 8/7 Barclays are after all to be the first of the banks to bring a personal loans scheme into operation. 1961Which? May 103/1 The banks have started ‘Personal Loan’ schemes, whereby you can borrow money from a bank without providing security. 1979Guardian 5 Feb. 15/4 Basically the clearing banks offer three kinds of packages: overdraft facilities; loan accounts, and personal loans.
1748B. Martin Institutions of Lang. 27 Of nouns or names there are three sorts, common, proper or personal, and relative... Proper or personal names are such as denote the individuals of each species; as Cæsar,..London, Paris, &c. 1871E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture I. viii. 276 Up from this savage level the same childlike habit of giving personal names to lifeless objects may be traced, as we read of Thor's hammer, Miölnir. 1911J. G. Frazer Golden Bough: Taboo (ed. 3) vi. 318 (heading) Personal names tabooed. 1925O. Jespersen Mankind, Nation & Individual ix. 172 The Araukans carefully conceal their personal-name from strangers. 1950Funk's Stand. Dict. Folklore II. 782/2 It is believed that if one is sick one's name is possibly not agreeing with one, hence the name is ‘washed off’, and a new personal name given. 1972Harrods Christmas Catal. 58/1 Fresh pâté de foie gras... For personal shoppers only. 1976Field 18 Nov. 1023/2 (Advt.), Send SAE for descriptive leaflet of our full range including a How-to-find-us map for personal shoppers.
1887S. A. Barnett Let. 12 Oct. in H. Barnett Canon Barnett (1918) II. xxxiii. 63 We talked of how workmen could be made at home in Toynbee. I am sure that attractions won't bring them, but only the personal touch. 1936A. Christie ABC Murders i. 11, I had various affairs to see to in England that I felt could only be successful if a personal touch was introduced. 1967A. Hunter Gently Continental vi. 75 We try to make people feel they belong here. The personal touch, you know. 1976‘O. Jacks’ Assassination Day iii. 48 Butcher hadn't overplayed his hand. He'd been crafty, relying on the personal touch.
B. n.
†1. A personal being; a person. Obs.
1678C. Hatton 18 June in H. Corr. (Camden) I. 163 Soe yt neither I nor any personells shall receive any prejudice by what I shall disclose to you.
2. a. pl. Things belonging to an individual person; personal matters or things. † spec. Personal goods or property, personalty.
1724Briton No. 24. 106 The Personals of the Nation belong not to this Enquiry. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) I. xxxi. 219 Shall my vanity extend only to personals? 1751Eliza Heywood Betsy Thoughtless I. 13 All his personals, which were very considerable in the bank,..should be equally divided. 1824Southey Bk. of Ch. vi. (1841) 57 The personals he distributed among the poor.
b. pl. Personal remarks or statements, ‘personalities’.
1742Richardson Pamela III. 227 We are going into Personals again, Gentlemen and Ladies, said the Earl. 1843Lytton Last Bar. ii. iii, Must I go bonnet in hand and simper forth the sleek personals of the choice of her kith and house?
c. An item in a newspaper about a person or group of persons; a classified advertisement addressed to an individual person. orig. U.S.
1861in A. Sterling Belle of Fifties (1904) 238, I inclose you a ‘personal’ from Brother Clement, published in yesterday's Enquirer. 1873F. Hudson Journalism in U.S. 472 Take the ‘personals’ of the Herald any day, and they will set one to thinking. 1875J. G. Holland Sevenoaks viii. 103 Returning..to look over the papers, his eye was attracted, among the ‘personals’, to an item [etc.]. 1888Pall Mall G. 22 June 14/1 What they call ‘personals’ across the ocean. 1901Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 16 Oct. 7/1 (heading) Personals. 1913Collier's 1 Feb. 17/3 He inserts a ‘personal’ in a New York newspaper under her initials. 1968L. Durrell Tunc iii. 166 He had invented what he called the mnemon which he insisted was a literary form... Times Personals of a slightly surrealist tinge. 1977R. E. Harrington Quintain viii. 76 The classified section was his favorite part of the paper. He enjoyed reading the disguised, plaintive little cries for help in the Personals.
3. Gram. Short for personal pron.: see A. 7. rare.
1824L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 234 These personals are superfluous. 1845Stoddart in Encycl. Metrop. (1847) I. 45/1 It might, perhaps, have been better..if the words which we are now considering had been arranged in a class between the personals and the article.
4. = personnel. rare. ? Obs.
1818Blackw. Mag. IV. 159 The personal of the establishments to be under the joint direction of the founder [etc.]. 1833Westm. Rev. Apr. 308 The personal of the army or navy.
5. A personal friend. colloq.
1961Listener 21 Dec. 814/3 Reynard La Spoon, the choreographer—he's a close personal, ent he, Jule?
6. Basketball. A foul involving bodily contact with an opponent.
1961in Webster. 1969Eugene (Oregon) Register-Guard 3 Dec. 1d/3 Love played only the first eight or nine minutes of the first half before collecting his third personal. 1974State (Columbia, S. Carolina) 3 Mar. 2-d/1 He fouled out in the game's final minute after playing almost 13 minutes with four personals.
Add:[A.] [10.] personal organizer, a portable folder or wallet containing loose-leaf sections for storing personal information (such as appointments and addresses), etc. systematically; hence, a pocket-sized microcomputer or software for a personal computer providing similar functions; cf. Filofax n., *organizer n. 3.
1985Los Angeles Times 20 Aug. iv. 1/2 These busy people all rely on *personal organizers—compact, three-ring binders designed to keep track of various aspects of one's life. 1986Observer (Colour Suppl.) 23 Nov. 61 Now you can buy your oh-so-yuppie ‘personal organiser’ or designer diary system at your local branch. 1988Times 10 June 27/4 This shop in Bow Lane is the only one in the City to specialize in..the personal organizer, be it Filofax or one of the other makes.
▸ personal digital assistant n. Computing a (usually hand-held) portable computer, esp. one which combines the functions of an electronic organizer with the capacity for networking and telecommunication; abbreviated PDA.
1992PR Newswire (Nexis) 9 Jan. The transformation from analog to digital technologies opens the possibility for a wide range of potentially very innovative and useful devices that we [sc. Apple Computer Inc.] are calling generically *Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). 1995Sci. Amer. Sept. 52/3 Some are taking on new forms, such as the wireless handheld computers called personal digital assistant (PDAs), so that they can handle text and graphics as well as audio messages; video is not far behind. 2001Times 2 Apr. (Interface section) 2 The head of marketing of Palm—maker of one of the world's übergadgets the Palm personal digital assistant—said that the global downturn may cause growth in the PDA market to halve. |