Dictionary Definition
personification
Noun
1 a person who represents an abstract quality;
"she is the personification of optimism"
2 representing an abstract quality or idea as a
person or creature [syn: prosopopoeia]
3 the act of attributing human characteristics to
abstract ideas etc. [syn: incarnation]
User Contributed Dictionary
Noun
- A person, thing or name typifying a certain quality or idea; an embodiment or exemplification.
- Adolf Hitler was the personification of anti-Semitism.
- A figure of
speech, prosopopeia, in which an
inanimate object or an abstraction is given
human qualities.
- The writer used personification to convey her ideas.
- An artistic
representation of
an abstract quality as a human
- The Grim Reaper is a personification of death.
Translations
person, thing or name typifying a certain
quality or idea
- Croatian: personifikacija
- German: Personifizierung
figure of speech
- Croatian: personifikacija
- Czech: personifikace, zosobnění
- German: Personifizierung
artistic representation of an abstract quality
as a human
- Croatian: personifikacija
- German: Personifizierung
Extensive Definition
A personification is a figure of speech that
gives an inanimate object or abstract idea human traits and
qualities, such as emotions, desires, sensations, physical gestures
and speech.
In English literature, personification is
oft-used as a literary
device:
- In John Keats's To Autumn, the fall season is personified as "sitting careless on a granary floor" (line 14) and "drowsed with the fume of poppies" (line 17).
- In John Donne's Holy Sonnet X, death is personified as a "slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate sucking men" (line 9).
Similar figures of speech
The pathetic
fallacy is the generalization of personification which applies
to any description of inanimate objects or abstractions imbuing
them with human-like traits. Anthropomorphism
is a particular form of personification which gives such traits to
tangible objects or natural phenomena. These are all allusive figures of speech
called tropes.
Personification is not to be confused with
prosopopoeia, which
is the act of an author or writer narrating as another person or
some other object. An
apostrophe is where one addresses a personified or
anthropomorphized object.
See also
References
personification in Czech: Personifikace
personification in German: Personifikation
personification in French:
Personnification
personification in Croatian:
Personifikacija
personification in Hebrew: האנשה
personification in Georgian: გაპიროვნება
personification in Macedonian:
Персонификација
personification in Dutch: Personificatie
personification in Japanese: 擬人化
personification in Polish: Personifikacja
personification in Portuguese:
Personificação
personification in Russian: Олицетворение
personification in Slovak: Personifikácia
personification in Slovenian: Poosebljenje
personification in Serbian:
Персонификација
personification in Finnish:
Personifikaatio
personification in Swedish:
Personifikation
personification in Chinese: 擬人化
1. Unknown, . "Personification." Poetry As We See
It. 1 June 2003. ThinkQuest. 30 May 2008 .
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
acting,
aping, characterization,
corporealization, dumb
show, embodiment,
enacting, enactment, imitation, impersonation, incarnation, incorporation, masquerade, materialization,
metempsychosis,
mimesis, mimicking, mimicry, miming, pantomime, pantomiming, performance, performing, personation, playing, portrayal, posing, reembodiment, reincarnation, substantiation, transmigration