| person to person epidemic | An epidemic resulting from person to person contact, characterised by a gradual rise and fall in number of cases. (09 Oct 1997) |
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| person | 1. A character or part, as in a play; a specific kind or manifestation of individual character, whether in real life, or in literary or dramatic representation; an assumed character. "His first appearance upon the stage in his new person of a sycophant or juggler." (Bacon) "No man can long put on a person and act a part." (Jer. Taylor) "To bear rule, which was thy part And person, hadst thou known thyself aright." (Milton) "How different is the same man from himself, as he sustains the person of a magistrate and that of a friend!" (South) 2. The bodily form of a human being; body; outward appearance; as, of comely person. "A fair persone, and strong, and young of age." (Chaucer) "If it assume my noble father's person." (Shak) "Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined." (Milton) 3, self-conscious being, as distinct from an animal or a thing; a moral agent; a human being; a man, woman, or child. "Consider what person stands for; which, I think, is a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and reflection." (Locke) 4. A human being spoken of indefinitely; one; a man; as, any person present. 5. A parson; the parish priest. 6. Among Trinitarians, one of the three subdivisions of the Godhead (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost); an hypostasis. "Three persons and one God." 7. One of three relations or conditions (that of speaking, that of being spoken to, and that of being spoken of) pertaining to a noun or a pronoun, and thence also to the verb of which it may be the subject. A noun or pronoun, when representing the speaker, is said to be in the first person; when representing what is spoken to, in the second person; when representing what is spoken of, in the third person. 8. <biology> A shoot or bud of a plant; a polyp or zooid of the compound Hydrozoa Anthozoa, etc.; also, an individual, in the narrowest sense, among the higher animals. "True corms, composed of united personae . . . Usually arise by gemmation, . . . Yet in sponges and corals occasionally by fusion of several originally distinct persons." (Encyc. Brit) Artificial, or Fictitious, person, a man, woman, or child, in distinction from a corporation. In person, by one's self; with bodily presence; not by representative. "The king himself in person is set forth." . In the person of, in the place of; acting for. Origin: OE. Persone, persoun, person, parson, OF. Persone, F. Personne, L. Persona a mask (used by actors), a personage, part, a person, fr. Personare to sound through; per + sonare to sound. See Per-, and cf. Parson. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| person-years | The sum of the number of years that each member of a population has been afflicted by a certain condition; e.g., years of treatment with a certain drug. (05 Mar 2000) |
| single person | The unmarried man or woman. (12 Dec 1998) |