Personal

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: per=son=al

CIDE DICTIONARY

Personal, a. [L. personalis: cf. F. personnel.].

•  Pertaining to human beings as distinct from things.  [1913 Webster]

  "Every man so termed by way of personal difference."  [1913 Webster]
•  Of or pertaining to a particular person; relating to, or affecting, an individual, or each of many individuals; peculiar or proper to private concerns; not public or general; as, personal comfort; personal desire.  [1913 Webster]

  "The words are conditional, -- If thou doest well, -- and so personal to Cain."  [1913 Webster]
•  Pertaining to the external or bodily appearance; corporeal; as, personal charms.  Addison.  [1913 Webster]
•  Done in person; without the intervention of another.  Fabyan.  [1913 Webster]

  "The immediate and personal speaking of God."  [1913 Webster]
•  Relating to an individual, his character, conduct, motives, or private affairs, in an invidious and offensive manner; as, personal reflections or remarks.  [1913 Webster]
•  Denoting person; as, a personal pronoun.  [1913 Webster]

Personal action (Law), a suit or action by which a man claims a debt or personal duty, or damages in lieu of it; or wherein he claims satisfaction in damages for an injury to his person or property, or the specific recovery of goods or chattels; -- opposed to real action. -- Personal equation. (Astron.) See under Equation. -- Personal estate or Personal property (Law), movables; chattels; -- opposed to real estate or property. It usually consists of things temporary and movable, including all subjects of property not of a freehold nature. -- Personal identity (Metaph.), the persistent and continuous unity of the individual person, which is attested by consciousness. -- Personal pronoun (Gram.), one of the pronouns I, thou, he, she, it, and their plurals. -- Personal representatives (Law), the executors or administrators of a person deceased. -- Personal rights, rights appertaining to the person; as, the rights of a personal security, personal liberty, and private property. -- Personal tithes. See under Tithe. -- Personal verb (Gram.), a verb which is modified or inflected to correspond with the three persons.

Personal, n. 

 A movable; a chattel.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Personal, adj.
1 one's own; individual; private.
2 done or made in person (made a personal appearance; my personal attention).
3 directed to or concerning an individual (a personal letter).
4 referring (esp. in a hostile way) to an individual's private life or concerns (making personal remarks; no need to be personal).
5 of the body and clothing (personal hygiene; personal appearance).
6 existing as a person, not as an abstraction or thing (a personal God).
7 Gram. of or denoting one of the three persons (personal pronoun).

Idiom

personal column the part of a newspaper devoted to private advertisements or messages. personal computer a computer designed for use by a single individual, esp. in an office or business environment . personal equation
1 the allowance for an individual person's time of reaction in making observations, esp. in astronomy.
2 a bias or prejudice. personal equity plan a scheme for limited personal investment in shares, unit trusts, etc. personal identification number a number allocated to an individual, serving as a password esp. for a cash dispenser, computer, etc. personal pronoun a pronoun replacing the subject, object, etc., of a clause etc., e.g. I, we, you, them, us. personal property (or estate) Law all one's property except land and those interests in land that pass to one's heirs (cf. REAL(1) adj. 3). personal service individual service given to a customer. personal stereo a small portable audio cassette player, often with radio, or compact disc player, used with lightweight headphones. personal touch a way of treating a matter characteristic of or designed for an individual.

Etymology

ME f. OF f. L personalis (as PERSON)

THESAURUS

Personal

absolute, actual, adverse, anonymous, belittling, bodily, bosom, certain, close, closet, concrete, critical, dear, defined, definite, deprecating, derogatory, detailed, determinate, different, disparaging, distinct, distinguished, esoteric, especial, exceptional, exclusive, express, extraordinary, familiar, fixed, idiosyncratic, in person, in the flesh, incognito, individual, inmost, inner, innermost, insulting, interior, intimate, inward, isolated, live, minute, noteworthy, offensive, particular, peculiar, physical, precise, private, privy, respective, retired, secluded, sequestered, several, singular, slighting, solipsistic, special, specific, unfriendly, withdrawn

ROGET THESAURUS

Personal

Substantiality

N substantiality, hypostasis, person, being, thing, object, article, item, something, a being, an existence, creature, body, substance, flesh and blood, stuff, substratum, matter, corporeity, element, essential nature, groundwork, materiality, substantialness, vital part, world, plenum, substantive, substantial, hypostatic, personal, bodily, tangible, corporeal, substantially, bodily, essentially.

Speciality

N speciality, specialite, individuality, individuity, particularity, peculiarity, idiocrasy, personality, characteristic, mannerism, idiosyncrasy, specificness, singularity, reading, version, lection, state, trait, distinctive feature, technicality, differentia, particulars, details, items, counts, minutiae, I, self, I myself, myself, himself, herself, itself, special, particular, individual, specific, proper, personal, original, private, respective, definite, determinate, especial, certain, esoteric, endemic, partial, party, peculiar, appropriate, several, characteristic, diagnostic, exclusive, singular, idiomatic, idiotypical, typical, this, that, yon, yonder, specially, especially, particularly, in particular, in propria persona, ad hominem, for my part, each, apiece, one by one, one at a time, severally, respectively, each to each, seriatim, in detail, in great detail, in excruciating detail, in mind-numbing detail, bit by bit, pro hac vice, pro re nata, namely, that is to say, for example, id est, exemplia gratia, e, g, i, e, videlicet, viz, to wit, le style est l'homme meme.

Immateriality

N immateriality, immaterialness, incorporeity, spirituality, inextension, astral plane, personality, I, myself, me, ego, spirit, astral body, immaterialism, spiritualism, spiritualist, immaterial, immateriate, incorporeal, incorporal, incorporate, unfleshly, supersensible, asomatous, unextended, unembodied, disembodied, extramundane, unearthly, pneumatoscopic, spiritual, personal, subjective, nonobjective.

Mankind

N man, mankind, human race, human species, human kind, human nature, humanity, mortality, flesh, generation, anthropology, anthropogeny, anthropography, anthroposophy, ethnology, ethnography, humanitarian, human being, person, personage, individual, creature, fellow creature, mortal, body, somebody, one, such a one, some one, soul, living soul, earthling, party, head, hand, dramatis personae, quidam, people, persons, folk, public, society, world, community, community at large, general public, nation, nationality, state, realm, commonweal, commonwealth, republic, body politic, million, population, tribe, clan (paternity), family (consanguinity), cosmopolite, lords of the creation, ourselves, human, mortal, personal, individual, national, civic, public, social, cosmopolitan, anthropoid, am I not a man and a brother?.