personate

From Latin persōnātus

personate (third-person singular simple present personates, present participle personating, simple past and past participle personated)

1. (transitive) To fraudulently portray another person; to impersonate.
   • 1873, William Lucas Collins, Plautus and Terence, chapter IV, page 67

     But this latter has, at the suggestion of Tyndarus, exchanged clothes with him, and the slave […] personates the master.

2. (transitive) To portray a character (as in a play); to act.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter I, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292, book IV:

     The antients would certainly have invoked the goddess Flora for this purpose, and it would have been no difficulty for their priests, or politicians to have persuaded the people of the real presence of the deity, though a plain mortal had personated her and performed her office.

3. (transitive) To attribute personal characteristics to something; to personify.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

4. (transitive) To set forth in an unreal character; to disguise; to mask.
   • Milton

     a personated mate

• personation
• personative
• personator

personate (comparative more personate, superlative most personate)

1. (botany) Having the throat of a bilabiate corolla nearly closed by a projection of the base of the lower lip; masked, as in the flower of the snapdragon.

From Latin personō (“cry out”).

personate (third-person singular simple present personates, present participle personating, simple past and past participle personated)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To celebrate loudly; to extol; to praise.
   • Milton

     In fable, hymn, or song so personating / Their gods ridiculous.

• Esperanto

personāte

1. first-person plural present active imperative of personō