English
people
Etymology

From Middle English puple, peple, peeple, from Anglo-Norman people, from Old French pueple, peuple, pople, from Latin populus, from itc-ola populus, from earlier poplus, from even earlier poplos, from itc-pro *poplos of unknown origin.

Originally used with singular verbs (e.g. "the people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness" in the King James Version of 2 Samuel 17:29), the plural aspect of people is probably due to influence from Middle English lede, leed, a plural since Old English times; see lēode.

Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ˈpiːpəl/, /ˈpiːpl̩/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈpipəl/, /ˈpipl̩/, [ˈpʰipɫ̩]
Noun

people

  1. plural form of person: a body of persons considered generally or collectively; a group of two or more persons.
    Synonyms: peeps, lede, leod
    There were so many people at the restaurant last night.
    These six people are waiting for the bus.
    Under dictatorship, people suffered and died.
    • c. 1607, plaque recording the Bristol Channel floods:
      XXII people was in this parrish drownd.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:
      There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.
    • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC ↗:
      “ […] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
        Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”
  2. (countable, collective) Persons forming or belonging to a particular group, such as a nation, class, ethnic group, country, family, etc.
    Synonyms: collective, community, congregation, folk
    Coordinate term: (sometimes synonymous) nation
    a people apart
    an industrious people
    the indigenous peoples of Europe
    the native peoples of Borneo
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC ↗:
      `So, oh Holly. This people was an old people before the Egyptians were.'
  3. A group of persons regarded as being servants, followers, companions or subjects of a ruler or leader.
    Moses said, "Let my people go."
    his people were weary
    Synonyms: fans, groupies, supporters
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, 2 Samuel 8:15 ↗, column 1:
      And Dauid reigned ouer all Iſrael, and Dauid executed iudgement and iuſtice vnto all his people.
    • 1952, Old Testament, Revised Standard Version, Thomas Nelson & Sons, Book of Isaiah 1:3:
      The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand.
  4. One's colleagues or employees.
    I'll have my people call your people.
    I have my people working on it.
  5. A person's ancestors, relatives or family.
    Synonyms: kin, kith, folks
    My people lived through the Black Plague and the Thirty Years War.
    His people live out west.
  6. The mass of a community as distinguished from a special class (elite); the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; the citizens.
    Synonyms: populace, commoners, citizenry
    The people finally stood up against communism.
    The election is over and the people have spoken.
    The people won't stand for so much corruption.
    • 1966, Dick Tuck, Concession Speech:
      The people have spoken, the bastards.
  7. People in general, humans, by extension sentient beings real or fictional.
    People don't like it when you tweak their noses.
    Teachers are people too.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

people (peoples, present participle peopling; simple past and past participle peopled)

  1. (transitive) To stock with people or inhabitants; to fill as with people; to populate.
    • 1674, John Dryden, The State of Innocence and the Fall of Man‎[https://web.archive.org/web/20100615070614/http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/stateinn.html], act II, scene I:
      He would not be alone, who all things can; / But peopled Heav'n with Angels, Earth with Man.
    • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXI, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC ↗, page 159 ↗:
      Scenes, long since forgotten, had been peopling his solitude with one still cherished image paramount over all; one young fair face, whose sweet eyes seemed to look upon him reproachfully:...
  2. (intransitive) To become populous or populated.
  3. (transitive) To inhabit; to occupy; to populate.
    • a. 1645, John Milton, Il Penseroso, lines 7–8:
      […] / As thick and numberless / As the gay motes that people the Sun Beams, / […]
  4. (rare, informal) To interact with people; to socialize.
    • 2019, Casey Diam, Love‎:
      My head tilted as Calvin said, "Don't worry about him. He just doesn't people well.
      The fuck? I people. Sometimes. With people I know.
Translations Translations
  • French: se peupler
  • Portuguese: povoar-se
  • Spanish: poblarse
Translations

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