impersonal
Etymology
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Etymology
From French impersonnel, from Latin impersōnālis, from im- ("not") + persōnālis ("personal"), equivalent to
- (America) IPA: /ɪmˈpɝsənəl/
- (Northern England English, Syllabic post-schwa consonants) IPA: /ɪmˈpɜː.sn̩.ɫ̩/
impersonal
- Not personal; not representing a person; not having personality.
- 1853, James Stephen, On Desultory and Systematic Reading: A Lecture:
- The great tragedians of Greece reveal to us their people's exquisite sense of beauty, and their faith in an awful, an almighty, but an impersonal power, called Fate
- Lacking warmth or emotion; cold.
- She sounded impersonal as she gave her report of the Nazi death camps.
- 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC ↗:
- And now it appeared that there was a mysterious Queen clothed by rumour with dread and wonderful attributes, and commonly known by the impersonal, but, to my mind, rather awesome title of She.
- (grammar, of a verb or other word) Not having a subject, or having a third person pronoun without an antecedent.
- Synonyms: monopersonal, unipersonal
- The verb “rain” is impersonal in sentences like “It’s raining.”
- German: unpersönlich
- Russian: безли́чный
- Spanish: impersonal
- German: unpersönlich
- Portuguese: impessoal
- Russian: отчуждённый
- Spanish: impersonal
- French: impersonnel
- German: unpersönlich
- Russian: безли́чный
- Spanish: impersonal
impersonal (plural impersonals)
- (grammar) An impersonal word or construct.
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.005
