personnel

English

Etymology

From French personnel.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /pɝ.səˈnɛl/, /pɝsˈnɛl/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɜː.səˈnɛl/, /pɜːsˈnɛl/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /pɵː.sɘˈnɛl/, /pɵːsˈnɛl/, /-el/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛl

Noun

personnel (countable and uncountable, plural personnels)

1. Employees; office staff.
   • 1924, U.S. Army Recruiting News (page 10)

     People like to see such friendly relationship existing between the respective personnels of their Army, Navy and Marine Corps.

   • 2010 August 4, Leonard S. Rubenstein, JD; Stephen N. Xenakis, MD, “The Ethics of Enhanced Interrogations and Torture: A Reappraisal of the Argument”, in JAMA‎^[1], volume 304, number 5, American Medical Association, DOI:10.1001/jama.2010.1057, pages 569–570:

     In 2009, the Obama Administration released guidelines on enhanced interrogation written in 2003 and 2004 by the CIA Office of Medical Services. ^{(OMS).1-3(appendix F)} The OMS guidelines, even in redacted form, and opinions from the US Department of Justice's (DOJ’s) Office of Legal Counsel show that CIA physicians, psychologists, and other health care personnel had important roles in enhanced interrogation.

2. (uncountable) A human resources department.

   I've just had a letter from personnel.

Usage notes

• Not to be confused with personal.

Translations

employees, office staff

• Bulgarian: персонал (bg) m (personal), личен състав m (ličen sǎstav)
• Dutch: personeel (nl), medewerkers (nl)
• Finnish: henkilökunta (fi), henkilöstö (fi)
• French: personnel (fr) m
• Georgian: პერსონალი (ṗersonali), კადრები (ḳadrebi), შტატი (ka) (šṭaṭi)
• German: Personal (de) n
• Hebrew: סגל‎ (he) m (segel)
• Hungarian: személyzet (hu)
• Ido: personaro (io)
• Indonesian: personel (id), personil (id)
• Italian: personale (it) m

• Malagasy: olona (mg)
• Malay: kakitangan
• Norwegian: personell
• Polish: personel (pl) m, kadra (pl) f
• Portuguese: pessoal (pt) m
• Romanian: personal (ro)
• Russian: ли́чный соста́в (ru) m (líčnyj sostáv), персона́л (ru) m (personál)
• Spanish: personal (es) m
• Turkish: personel (tr) pl, çalışanlar pl, kadro (tr)
• Volapük: (collective) pösodef (vo)
• Welsh: personél m

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin personalis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛʁ.sɔ.nɛl/

• audio

  (file)

Adjective

personnel (feminine singular personnelle, masculine plural personnels, feminine plural personnelles)

1. personal

Synonyms

• (informal) perso

Noun

personnel m (plural personnels)

1. staff, members of staff, personnel

Related terms

• personnaliser
• personne
• personnellement

Further reading

• “personnel” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).