2020-10-18
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด I – individual – party – person
การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ ที่ถือว่า ถูกต้อง ในที่นี้ เป็นไป ตามมาตรฐาน ของภาษา
การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ ไม่กำหนดมาตฐาน ถือตามส่วนใหญ่ที่ใช้แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจยืดหยุ่น ขึ้นอยู่กับ ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง individual = ‘in-duh-VIJ-oo-uhl’
ออกเสียง party = ‘PAHR-tee’
ออกเสียง person = ‘PUR-suhn’
Dictionary.com
USAGE NOTE FOR INDIVIDUAL
As a synonym for person, individual is standard,
occurring in all varieties of speech and writing:
Three individuals entered the room, each carrying a sheaf of papers.
Some object to this use, insisting that individual can mean only
“a single human being, as distinguished from a group”:
An individual may have concerns that are ignored by his or her party.
Dictionary.com
USAGE NOTE FOR PARTY
Party meaning “a specific individual” is old in the language, going back to the 15th century, and was formerly in common use. Today, it remains standard in limited senses, chiefly the legal, and is often used humorously or condescendingly:
the party holding the balloon.
The word person is the neutral and commonterm.
Dictionary.com
USAGE NOTE FOR -PERSON
The -person compounds are increasingly used, especially in the press, on radio and television, and in government and corporate communications, with the object of avoiding sex discrimination in language. Earlier practice was to use -man as the final element in such compounds regardless of the sex of the person referred to ( anchorman; businessman ) or to use -woman when referring to a woman ( anchorwoman; businesswoman ).
Some object to these new -person compounds on the grounds that they are awkward or unnecessary, insisting that the equivalent and long-used compounds in -man are generic, not sex-marked. Others reject the -man compounds as discriminatory when applied to women or to persons whose sex is unknown or irrelevant. To resolve the argument, certain terms can be successfully shortened ( anchor; chair ).
See also chairperson, -ess, lady, -man, -woman.
BRITISH DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS
USAGE FOR PERSON
People is the word usually used to refer to more than one individual:
there were a hundred people at the reception.
Persons is rarely used, except inofficial English:
several persons were interviewed
Dictionary.com
SYNONYM STUDY FOR PERSON
Person, individual, personage are terms applied to human beings.
Person is the most general and commonword:
the average person.
Individual views a person as standing alone oras a single member of a group:
the characteristics of the individual;
its implication is sometimes derogatory:
a disagreeable individual.
Personage is used (sometimes ironically) of an outstanding or illustrious person:
We have a distinguished personage visiting us today.
Dictionary.com
GRAMMAR NOTES FOR PERSON
There is understandable confusion about the plural of this word.
Is it persons or people?
Person —like other regular English nouns—constructsits grammatical plural by adding -s, forming persons.
This has been so since person came into Middle English in the late twelfth century.
But as far back as the fourteenth century, some writers, including the poet Chaucer, were using an entirely different word— people, not persons —as the functional plural of person. And today, people seems more natural, especially in casual, informal conversation or writing.
Using people as a plural of person has not always been free of controversy.
From the mid nineteenth to the late twentieth century, the use of people instead of persons was hotly contested; and among some news publications, book publishers, and writers of usage books, it was expressly forbidden. To quell the fires of the argument, some usage authorities attempted to regulate use of the two forms—recommending persons whencounting a small, specific number of individuals
(Three persons were injured in the accident )
and people when referring to a large, round, or uncountable number
(More than two thousand people bought tickets on the first day; People crowded around the exhibit, blocking it from view ).
But efforts to impose such precise rules in language usually fail.
This rule does not appear in currently popular style manuals, and if such a rule still exists in anyone's mind, it is mainly ignored.
People is the plural form that most people are most comfortable with most of the time.
Persons seems excessively formal and stiltedin ordinary conversation or casual writing.
One would probably not say, “How many persons came to your birthday party?”
In legal or formal contexts, however, persons is often the form of choice
(The police are looking for any person or persons who may have witnessed the crime; Occupancy by more than 75 persons is prohibited by the fire marshal).
In addition, persons is often used when we pluralize person in a set phrase
(missing persons; persons of interest).
Otherwise, the modern consensus is that people is the preferred plural.
Persons is not wrong, but it is increasinglyrare.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary,
person
a combining form of person, replacing in existing compound words
such paired, sex-specific forms as -man and -woman or -er1 and -ess: s
alesperson; waitperson.
usage.: The -person compounds are used, esp. by the media and in government and business communications, to avoid the -man compounds (anchorman; businessman) for individuals of either sex
or the -woman compounds (anchorwoman; businesswoman) to specify the individual's sex.
Some find the new -person compounds unnecessary, regarding the long-used compounds in -man as generic, not sex-marked.
Alternatives to some of the -person forms have won acceptance, as anchor and chair; other coinages, as congressmember,
have had only marginal use.
See also -ess, lady, -man, -woman.
Collins COBUILD English Usage
People – person
1. 'people'
People is a plural noun. You use a plural form of a verb after it.
People is most commonly used to refer toa particular group of men and women,
or a particular group of men, women, and children.
The people at my work mostly wear suits.
Two hundred people were killed in the fire.
You often use people to refer to all the men, women, and children of a particular country, tribe, or race.
The British people elect a new government every four or five years.
2. 'peoples'
When you are referring to several countries, tribes, or races,
you can use the plural form peoples.
They all belong to the ancient group of Indo-European peoples.
3. another use of 'people'
People can also be used to say that something is generally done.
I don't think people should drive so fast.
She always tried to help people.
4. 'person'
Person is a countable noun. A person is an individual man, woman, or child.
There was far too much food for one person.
Chen is a good person to ask if you have a computer problem.
The usual plural of 'person' is people, but in formal English persons is sometimes used.
No unauthorized persons may enter the building.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Words at Play
The Difference Between 'Person' and 'Personage'
Both words have personality
Language changes just fast enough that we notice
—and usually we disapprove of those changes that we notice.
Relatively new words to American English are frequently criticized:
think of impactful, ginormous, or bae, all of which rub some people the wrong way.
A personage is "a person of high rank"
or "a dramatic, fictional, or historical character.”
Its least-common meaning still in current use is a synonym of “person.”
Often it’s harder to observe the decline in usage of a given word.
It’s much less dramatic.
One example is personage, a word that has eight definitions in Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, four of which are labeled either archaic or obsolete.
The Latin word persona meant“actor’s mask” or “actor’s role,”
and our word person, its first descendantin English, initially meant both “an individual human being” and “a character or part in a play,” the latter being the meaning of the French word personnage.
In fact, both person and personage came from French, and the -age suffix used in words like dosage, postage, and orphanage can sometimes specifically mean“state” or “rank,” as in the high-status peerage or the low-status peonage.
A personage was therefore “a person of high rank”—one of the ways the word is still used today (frequently with a modifier
such as “historical personage,” “distinguished personage,” or “royal personage.”)
Personage can also mean “a dramatic, fictional, or historical character.”
Its least-common meaning still in current use is a synonym of “person.”
The rareness of this use of the word may be due to a common prejudice against longer words used when shorter words can do the job
(people criticize utilize when used to mean use for the same reason).
The meanings of personage that have fallen from use over time are mostly abstract:
“the form or appearance of a person,”
“a person of specified bodily form,”
“a representation of a human being,” and
“one’s self, personality, or personal identity.”
You might think that persona was the oldest of these related words in English, since it entered the language directly from Latin.
In fact, it’s the newest: it came to English centuries later than the others, in the 1700s, during a time when scholars in England introduced words from Greek and Latin (which is why the Latin plural form is commonly seen in dramatis personae).
That original meaning, “actor’s mask,” never really caught on; it was the use of the term by psychologist Carl Jung in the early 1900s, referring to the outward attitude or projected character of a person, that did. (Jung’s psychology also popularized the words archetype and synchronicity.)
So, it might be said that a personage is simply a person with an impressive persona.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Usage Notes
'People' vs. 'Persons'
How to choose between two words that seem to mean the same thing
What to Know
People should always be used when a collective noun referring to the entirety of a group or nation (i.e., "the French People") is called for.
For references to groups of a specific or general number, either people or persons may be used, but modern style guides tend to prefer people where earlier guides preferred persons, especially for countable groups.
There are few things in the English language more vexatious and bedeviling than two words which mean almost the same thing, especiallyif they are similar in appearance. The seeming luxury of having multiple words to choose from is not sufficient to offset the lingering fear that no matter which word you pick it will be the wrong one, causing people to silently laugh at you and judge both you and your grammar school teachers. So when presented with the choice of people or persons to describe a multitude of humans, many people begin to chew their fingernails in nervous agitation. Is there a simple explanation for which one to use?
Not really, but simple explanations aren’t all they’re cracked up to be,
so keep reading.
When a collective noun is called for (to refer, for instance, to the members of an entire nation) the appropriate word will always be 'people' ("the French people").
Many usage guides over the years have suggested that there is a clear distinction between these two words; people is used when referring to a collective group or indeterminate number, and persons serves better when referring to individuals (or a number of individuals). There are many instances in which this difference may be observed, often when the two words are side by side.
That universal chearfulness, which is the lot of some people, persons that you and I may envy at the same time that we despise, is all worth all that either fortune or nature can bestow.
—William Shenstone, Works, Letter, 27 Feb. 1753
Origins of People vs Persons
Both words may be traced to Latin roots: people comes from populus (“the people”), and person from persona (“mask [especially one worn by an actor], actor, person”).
We have been quibbling about which one we should choose since at least the eighteenth century.
The word people, is so very general, that it cannot be connected with a determinate number; as for instance, four, five, or six people; but that of persons may.
To be pleasant at table, none should be admitted but people of good humour: neither should there be more than seven or eight persons.
—John Trusler Distinction between Words esteemed Synonymous in the English Language, 1776
The objections to using people as a plural of person have shifted over the centuries. George Crabb, writing in the early 19th century, offered a slightly class-conscious rationale for why people should be avoided:
As the term people is employed to designate the promiscuous multitude, it has acquired a certain meanness of acceptation which makes it less suitable than the word persons, when people of respectability are referred to.
George Crabb, English Synonyms Explained, 1818
Matters of respectability aside, the more common dictum until recently was that people should be avoided when referring to any specific or general number of individuals.
people: Where individual persons, or a number of such, are intended, this word should be discarded in favor of persons.
—Frank Vizetelly, A Desk-Book of Errors in English, 1920
The fourth edition of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style still contains a cautionary note on not using people in this circumstance: “The word people is best not used with words of number, in place of persons. If of ‘six people’ five went away, how many ‘people’ would be left? Answer: one people.”
However, in the last few decades the trend has been very much in favor of people, rather than persons. The AP Stylebook flatly states “The word people is preferred to persons in all plural uses.” And The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage now also states “Use people as the plural of person,” although they add that persons may still be used in certain settings (“letters to the editor, in untranslated texts, in direct quotations and in a few established idioms like displaced persons and missing persons bureau”).
Collective Nouns
Persons tends to be still be found in some formalized settings, such as legal writing, or when a writer wishes to appear extra fancy. But the tide of opinion has shifted enough that you should feel comfortable using people in most cases where you have a choice. And if your ear tells you that persons would work better, there are still enough writers who use this word that your choice will likely not be looked at askance. It should be remembered, however, that when a collective noun is called for (to refer, for instance, to the members of an entire nation) people is the appropriate word (“the French people”).
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Word History
'Party': A Word for One or Many
Reader, you are the party we are in search of.
What to Know
Before party referred to groups or festivities, it originally meant a "part of a whole" and more often applied to individuals.
Legally a "party" existed on one side of an issue, or a "third party" was an individual who was affected but not part of either side.
Party also saw use as a generic word for a person, and in group settings like "hunting party," before the word formally referred to "social gatherings."
People have been partying since the dawn of time, but it took quite a while for the noun party, referring to a social gathering, to join the English language, and much longer for the related verb (it's a 20th-century Americanism). Originally, the noun meant "a part of a whole," or "a division, portion, or share." "The fourthe party of this day is goon," wrote medieval author Geoffrey Chaucer in the "The Man of Lawes Prologe" of The Canterbury Tales. The word is a Middle-English borrowing of Anglo-French partie, a noun derived from the verb partir, meaning "to divide." This sense of party fell into disuse in English toward the end of the 17th century, but party is still living it up—and in senses dating back to its beginnings.
Earliest Use of 'Party'
Earliest senses are still found in law books today referring to a part—an individual or a group—constituting one of the sides of a proceeding, transaction, or agreement. If one stops to think about it, the notion of a "party" being a single person might strike one as a bit odd, given that the word is most often used for a gathering of people, not "a party of one." However, it has been used in both ways, in and outside the courts, for centuries—and no one thinks twice about the sole party.
The term party in interest is one common, at least in law, example of singular party.
It refers to a person whose rights have been or might be (after final judgment) affected by a legal action, which often concerns the party's pecuniary interests, carried out especially by a government or judicial body.
Legal experts … don't believe the fact that the case as brought in the campaign's name would necessarily shield Trump himself from discovery, since he's the person in charge of the campaign, a likely fact witness and the real party in interest in terms of alleged damages.
— Erik Wemple, The Washington Post, 5 Mar. 2020
Another word for "a party of one" is third party, which names a person who is not one of the two main people involved in a legal agreement but who is still affected by it in some way.
By the late 14th century, the legal party sense referring to an individual was extended to a participant in any kind of action or affair.
IAGO: Gentlemen all, I do suspect this Trash / To be a party in this injury.
— William Shakespeare, Othello, ca. 1604
Beyond Legal Definitions
A little less than a century later, party begins being used in a jocular manner for a specific person, especially to a person who has reached a certain age.
The girls [the Brontë sisters] were neither mad nor bad nor particularly dangerous to know. Their father, Patrick, was a kind and genial parent; their brother, Branwell, was a talented and resourceful writer; Aunt Elizabeth Branwell was not the ferocious and dogmatic Methodist of myth but a rather flighty old party of advanced views.
— Peter Ackroyd, The New Yorker, 11 Sept. 1995
By the 17th century, party becomes a generic word for "person."
For, to yourself, what you do know, you must, / And cannot say you dare not. Good Camillo, / Your chang'd complexions are to me a mirror / Which shows me mine chang'd too; for I must be / A party in this alteration, finding / Myself thus alter'd with't.
— William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, 1610-11
A more recent "party of one" arrived with the 19th-century invention of the telephone when party came to be the name for the user of a telephone, especially one connected to a party line (or party wire), which was a single telephone circuit connecting two or more subscribers (people who owned early telephones) with the exchange (a central office in which telephone lines were once connected). "Your party is on the line" was a common line heard from an operator.
'Party' Referring to Groups
The single party aside, the word is most often celebrated in its signification of a group. Early on, party came to denote a group of people forming one side of a legal case or a contest, battle, etc., as well as to a group united in opinion or action in opposition to others. Additionally, it came to name a detachment of military personnel and a group engaged in the same activity, as in "search party" or "hunting party." In the 17th century, the familiar sense referring to political parties took form: "a group of persons usually sharing a set of political ideals who are organized for the purpose of directing the policies of a government."
About the beginning of the 18th century, English double-dipped and borrowed the French partie, a word for a social gathering for pleasure (as well as for a part of a whole). This word is the source of our social party, which takes part in the names of countless gatherings for entertainment, amusement, or pleasure: "birthday party," "block party," "cocktail party," "dinner party," "house party," "keg party"—the parties go on with parties featuring the presentation and/or demonstration of articles for sale (e.g., a makeup party or a Tupperware party)
Collins COBUILD English Usage
party
A party is a social event where people enjoy themselves by eating, drinking, dancing, talking, or playing games.
You use have, give, or throw to say that someone organizes a party.
We are having a party on Saturday.
They gave a party to celebrate their daughter's graduation.
We threw her a huge birthday party.
Be Careful!
Don't use 'make'. Don't say, for example, 'We are making a party'.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Choose the Right Synonym for individual
Adjective
SPECIAL, ESPECIAL, SPECIFIC, PARTICULAR, INDIVIDUAL
mean of or relating to one thing or class.
SPECIAL stresses having a quality, character, identity, or use of its own. special ingredients
ESPECIAL may add implications of preeminence or preference. a matter of especial importance
SPECIFIC implies a quality or character distinguishing a kind or a species. children with specific nutritional needs
PARTICULAR stresses the distinctness of something as an individual. a ballet step of particular difficulty
INDIVIDUAL implies unequivocal reference to one of a class or group. valued each individual opinion
CHARACTERISTIC, INDIVIDUAL, PECULIAR, DISTINCTIVE
mean indicating a special quality or identity.
CHARACTERISTIC applies to something that distinguishes or identifies a person or thing or class. responded with her characteristic wit
INDIVIDUAL stresses qualities that distinguish one from all other members of the same kind or class. a highly individual writing style
PECULIAR applies to qualities possessed only by a particular individual or class or kind and stresses rarity or uniqueness. an eccentricity that is peculiar to the British
DISTINCTIVE indicates qualities distinguishing and uncommon and often superior or praiseworthy. a distinctive aura of grace and elegance
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Individual
Individual was also very much in the news this week, after court filings in the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller indicated that President Trump was identified by this legalistic sobriquet.
In two major developments this week, President Trump has been labeled in the parlance of criminal investigations as a major subject of interest, complete with an opaque legal code name: “Individual 1.”
— Carol D. Leonnig & Josh Dawsey, The Washington Post, 29 Nov. 2018
Individual comes from the Latin individuus ("indivisible"), and shares a root (dividere, "to divide") with several other words in English, including divide, divisive, and dividend. Both the adjective and noun forms of individual date in use to the 15th century.
Common Errors in English Usage Dictionary
INDIVIDUAL – PERSON
Law-enforcement officers often use “individual” as a simple synonym for "person” when they don’t particularly mean to stress individuality:
“I pursued the individual who had fired the weapon at me for three blocks.”
This sort of use of “individual” lends an oddly formal air to your writing.
When “person” works as well, use it.
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression
individual – party – person
Individual is loosely overused to refer to “one person only”
and often has a humorous or contemptuous meaning:
“Who is that individual with the loud mouth and wide grin?”
Except in legal and telephonic language,
party is not recommended as a reference to one person.
Party refers to a group (a supper party, the Socialist party)
and is dubious in a sentence
such as “Who is the party that brought you to the store?”
In most situations, person should be preferred to either of the other two terms
when reference is being made to one.
Phrases such as “individual person,” “each individual member,” and “individual self” are wordy.
