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definitions

personage

[pur-suh-nij]
See more synonyms for personage on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a person of distinction or importance.
  2. any person.
  3. a character in a play, story, etc.

Origin of personage

1425–75; late Middle English: body or image (statue, portrait) of a person (< Old French) < Medieval Latin persōnāgium. See person, -age
Related formsnon·per·son·age, noun

Synonyms for personage

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1. See person.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for personage

dignitary, celebrity, tycoon, magnate, being, notable, VIP, heavyweight, bigwig

Examples from the Web for personage

Contemporary Examples of personage

  • Even compared with his personage in Casino Royale, the 007 of Quantum is basically a grunting eunuch.

    The Daily Beast logo
    Has Bond Lost His Balls?

    Matthew Oshinsky

    November 3, 2008

Historical Examples of personage

  • Now what other personage is there in Shakespeare who shows these traits or some of them?

  • The Personage on the hearthrug had been listening with profound attention.

    The Secret Agent

    Joseph Conrad

  • Mr. Macgregor, rising, advanced with great respect to this personage.

    Night and Morning, Complete

    Edward Bulwer-Lytton

  • But Philip had another motive in continuing his acquaintance with that personage.

    Night and Morning, Complete

    Edward Bulwer-Lytton

  • Until now this personage had escaped the observation of the travelers.

    The Last of the Mohicans

    James Fenimore Cooper

British Dictionary definitions for personage

personage

noun
  1. an important or distinguished person
  2. another word for person (def. 1) a strange personage
  3. rare a figure in literature, history, etc
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for personage
n.

mid-15c., "body of a person" (with regard to appearance), from Old French personage "size, stature," also "a dignitary" (13c.), from Medieval Latin personaticum (11c.), from persona (see person). Meaning "a person of high rank or distinction" is attested from c.1500 in English; as a longer way to say person, the word was in use from 1550s (but often slyly ironical, with suggestion that the subject is overly self-important).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper