impersonal adj

1 not relating to or responsive to individual persons; "an impersonal corporation"; "an impersonal remark" [ant: personal]

2 having no personal preference; "impersonal criticism"; "a neutral observer" [syn: neutral]

English

Etymology

From French impersonnel < Latin impersonalis < Latin im-, not + personalis, personal

Adjective

1. not personal; not representing a person; not having personality

   An almighty but impersonal power, called Fate. –Sir J. Stephen.

2. Lacking warmth or emotion; cold.

   She sounded impersonal as she gave her report of the Nazi death camps.

3. that which desires personality; specifically, an impersonal verb.

Related terms

• personal

Derived terms

• impersonal verb

Translations

Olympian, abstract, aloof, backward, bashful, blank, candid, chilled, chilly, cold, cold-blooded, colorless, constrained, conventionalized, cool, detached, discreet, disinterested, dispassionate, distant, emotionless, equal, equitable, evenhanded, expressionless, external, extraneous, extraorganismal, extrinsic, fair, forbidding, foreign, formal, formalist, formalistic, formulary, frigid, frosty, guarded, icy, impartial, impassive, inaccessible, indifferent, introverted, just, legalistic, lofty, matter-of-fact, mechanical, modest, neutral, nominal, nonsubjective, objective, offish, outlying, outside, outward, pedantic, poker-faced, prim, remote, removed, repressed, reserved, restrained, reticent, retiring, rigid, selfless, shrinking, standoff, standoffish, stiff, strait-laced, stuffy, stylized, subdued, superficial, suppressed, surface, unaffable, unapproachable, unbiased, uncolored, uncongenial, undazzled, undemonstrative, unexpansive, unfriendly, ungenial, unimpassioned, uninfluenced, unjaundiced, unprejudiced, unprepossessed, unselfish, unswayed, withdrawn, wooden