personate

See also: persónate

English

Etymology 1

From Latin persōnātus

Verb

1. (transitive) To fraudulently portray another person; to impersonate.
   • 1873, William Lucas Collins, Plautus and Terence, chapter IV, page 67

     But this latter has, at the suggestion of Tyndarus, exchanged clothes with him, and the slave […] personates the master.

2. (transitive) To portray a character (as in a play); to act.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter I, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV:

     The antients would certainly have invoked the goddess Flora for this purpose, and it would have been no difficulty for their priests, or politicians to have persuaded the people of the real presence of the deity, though a plain mortal had personated her and performed her office.

3. (transitive) To attribute personal characteristics to something; to personify.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

4. (transitive) To set forth in an unreal character; to disguise; to mask.
   • (Can we date this quote by Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     a personated mate

Related terms

• personation
• personative
• personator

Adjective

personate (comparative more personate, superlative most personate)

1. (botany, now uncommon) Having the throat of a corolla nearly closed by a projection of the base of the lower lip (in a way reminiscent of a mask), as in the flower of the snapdragon.
   • 1881, Journal of the Northampton Natural History Society and Field Club, page 248:

     This arrangement is well typified in plants with a personate corolla, such as the toad-flax and snap-dragon, ...

   • 1887, Jonathan Periam, The American Encyclopedia of Agriculture: A Treasury of Useful Information for the Farm and Household, page 946:

     […] the commencement of the tube of a personate or labiate flower.

   • 1899, Eliphalet Williams Hervey, Observations on the Colors of Flowers, page 90:

     Bumble bees are a sturdy race of insects, made to crowd, push, probe, and burrow; therefore they prefer a tubular or bell-shaped flower that they can enter, or a personate or papilionaceous flower that they can force, or a tubular ...

   • 2011, Katherine Dunster, Dictionary of Natural Resource Management, UBC Press (→ISBN), page 230:

     Botanically, the palate is a rounded prominence on the lower lip, closing or nearly closing the throat of a personate flower.

Etymology 2

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin personō (“cry out”).

Verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To celebrate loudly; to extol; to praise.
   • (Can we date this quote by Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     In fable, hymn, or song so personating / Their gods ridiculous.

Anagrams

• Esperanto

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Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) personāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of personō