personifier

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per·son·i·fy

(pər-sŏn′ə-fī′)

tr.v. per·son·i·fied, per·son·i·fy·ing, per·son·i·fies

1. To think of or represent (an inanimate object or abstraction) as having personality or the qualities, thoughts, or movements of a living being: "To make history or psychology alive I personify it" (Anaïs Nin).

2. To represent (an object or abstraction) by a human figure.

3. To represent (an abstract quality or idea): This character personifies evil.

4. To be the embodiment or perfect example of: "Stalin now personified bolshevism in the eyes of the world" (A.J.P. Taylor).

[French personnifier, from personne, person, from Old French persone; see person.]

per·son′i·fi′er n.

References in periodicals archive ?

Millions of graduates have identified themselves as the personifiers of expertise and believe themselves entitled to rule.

The cold Civil War

Carmen and her personifiers could even accentuate this or that aspect of her characteristics, generating comic effects by playing with a supposed authenticity constructed by the artist.

Consuming Carmen Miranda: dislocations and dissonances in the reception of an icon

When we speak of this or that figure in a naturalistic novel or play as a "typical" character, we ourselves, instinctively turning allegorists or personifiers, reduce these figures to embodiments of one or two predominant traits or qualities; so that, as they pass current from mind to mind, they have no more three-dimensional actuality than what attaches to a personified abstraction - which is exactly what they have become: eponymous personified abstractions.