personification

English

Porcelain personifications of the continents (from left to right): America, Europe, Africa and Asia, from circa 1780-1788

Rococo set of personification figurines of the Four Elements, from the 1760s

Etymology

From person(ify) + -ification.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɚˌsɑ.nə.fəˈkeɪ.ʃən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

personification (countable and uncountable, plural personifications)

2. (countable) A person, thing, or name typifying a certain quality or idea; an embodiment or exemplification.

   Adolf Hitler was the personification of anti-Semitism.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Publishing”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 12:

     He might have sat for a personification of fear: if he moved, he seemed rather afraid of his own shadow following him too closely; if he laughed, he soon checked himself, quite alarmed at the sound.

   • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 52:

     De Coude was the personification of coolness—was he not the best shot in France?

4. (countable) An artistic representation of an abstract quality as a human.

   The Grim Reaper is a personification of death.

6. (usually uncountable) The process of creating such a representation: a literary device or other artistic method in which an inanimate object or an idea is given human qualities.

   You might search in vain if you go looking for personification in his works: his style was very concrete.

   The writer used personification to convey her ideas.

Coordinate terms

• anthropomorphism
• humanization
• prosopopoeia

Derived terms

• impersonification
• nonpersonification

Related terms

• personify (verb)

Translations

person, thing or name typifying a certain quality or idea

• Arabic: تَجْسِيد m (tajsīd)
• Azerbaijani: təcəssüm (az)
• Bulgarian: олицетворение (bg) n (olicetvorenie)
• Catalan: personificació (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 擬人 / 拟人 (zh) (nǐrén)

• Danish: personificering c
• Dutch: personificatie (nl) f, verpersoonlijking (nl) f
• Finnish: henkilöitymä (fi)
• French: personnification (fr) f
• Galician: personificación (gl) f
• Georgian: გაპიროვნება (gaṗirovneba), პერსონიფიკაცია (ṗersonipiḳacia)
• German: Personifizierung (de) f
• Greek: προσωποποίηση (el) f (prosopopoíisi)
• Hungarian: megtestesülés (hu), megtestesítő (hu), megtestesült (hu)
• Indonesian: personifikasi (id)
• Japanese: 擬人化 (ja) (gijinka)
• Malay: personifikasi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: personifikasjon m, personifisering m or f

  Nynorsk: personifikasjon m, personifisering f

• Papiamentu: personificacion
• Polish: uosobienie (pl) n, personifikacja (pl) f, wcielenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: personificação (pt) f
• Russian: олицетворе́ние (ru) n (olicetvorénije), воплоще́ние (ru) n (voploščénije)
• Serbo-Croatian: personifikacija (sh) f
• Spanish: personificación (es) f
• Swedish: personifikation (sv) c
• Turkish: tecessüm (tr)
• Ukrainian: персоніфіка́ція f (personifikácija)

literary device

• Catalan: personificació (ca) f, prosopopeia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 人格化形象 (réngéhuà xíngxiàng)

• Czech: personifikace f, zosobnění n
• Danish: personificering c
• Dutch: personificatie (nl) f
• Finnish: henkilöinti (fi), personifikaatio (fi)
• Galician: personificación (gl) f
• German: Personbildung f, Personendichtung f, Personifikation (de) f, Prosopopöie, Personifizierung (de) f
• Hungarian: megszemélyesítés (hu)
• Polish: personifikacja (pl) f, uosobienie (pl) n
• Portuguese: personificação (pt) f
• Russian: персонифика́ция (ru) f (personifikácija)
• Serbo-Croatian: personifikacija (sh) f
• Spanish: personificación (es) f, prosopopeya (es) f, metagoge (es) f
• Swedish: personifikation (sv) c
• Tagalog: pagsasatao
• Thai: บุคคลวัต (th)
• Turkish: tecessüm (tr)
• Ukrainian: персоніфіка́ція f (personifikácija)
• Welsh: personoliad m

artistic representation of an abstract quality as a human

• Azerbaijani: şəxsləndirmə
• Basque: pertsonifikazio
• Bulgarian: въплъщение (bg) n (văplăštenie)
• Catalan: personificació (ca) f
• Danish: personificering c
• Dutch: personificatie (nl) f
• Finnish: henkilöitymä (fi)
• Galician: personificación (gl) f
• German: Personifizierung (de) f
• Hungarian: megszemélyesítés (hu)
• Italian: personificazione (it) f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: personifikasjon m, personifisering m or f

  Nynorsk: personifikasjon m, personifisering f

• Polish: uosobienie (pl) n, animizacja (pl) f, ożywienie (pl) n
• Portuguese: personificação (pt) f
• Russian: персонифика́ция (ru) f (personifikácija)
• Serbo-Croatian: personifikacija (sh) f
• Spanish: personificación (es) f
• Turkish: tecessüm (tr)

See also

• pathetic fallacy