people
UK /ˈpiː.pəl/ · US /ˈpi.pəl/ noun, verb
Also a form of person
Forms peoples peopling peopled peeps peops peple pipple ppl ppl.
- noun (countable, collective) Persons forming or belonging to a particular group, such as a nation, class, ethnic group, country, family, etc. “a people apart”
- noun A group of persons regarded as being servants, followers, companions or subjects of a ruler or leader. “Moses said, "Let my people go."”
- noun One's colleagues or employees. “I'll have my people call your people.”
- noun A person's ancestors, relatives or family. “My people lived through the Black Plague and the Thirty Years War.”
- noun The mass of a community as distinguished from a special class (elite); the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; the citizens. “The people have successfully stood up against tyranny and totalitarianism.”
- noun People in general, humans, by extension sentient beings real or fictional. “People don't like it when you tweak their noses.”
- verb (rare, informal, chiefly in the negative) To interact with people; to socialize.
- verb (transitive) To stock with people or inhabitants; to fill as with people; to populate.
- verb (intransitive) To become populous or populated.
- verb (transitive) To inhabit; to occupy; to populate.
Synonyms
peeps lede leod collective community congregation folk fans groupies supporters kin kith folks populace commoners citizenry multitude masses mass hoi polloi the great unwashed
Etymology
From Middle English puple, peple, peeple, from Anglo-Norman people, from Old French pueple, peuple, pople, from Latin populus (“a people, nation”), from Old Latin populus, from earlier poplus, from even earlier poplos, from Proto-Italic *poplos (“army”) of unknown origin. Doublet of pueblo. Gradually ousted native English lede and, partially, folk.
Originally used with singular verbs (e.g. "the people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness" in the King James Version of 2 Samuel 17:29), the plural aspect of people is probably due to influence from Middle English lede, leed, a plural since Old English times; see lēode.
From Middle English peplen, peuplien, partly from Middle French peupler (from peuple (“people”)) and partly from the noun (etymology 1).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The body of persons who compose a community, tribe, nation, or race; an aggregate of individuals forming a whole; a community; a nation.
- noun Persons, generally; an indefinite number of men and women; folks; population, or part of population; as, country people; --sometimes used as an indefinite subject or verb, like on in French, and man in German; as, people in adversity.
- verb To stock with people or inhabitants; to fill as with people; to populate. "Peopled heaven with angels." Dryden.
Etymology [OE. peple, people, OF. pueple, F. peuple, fr. L. populus. Cf. Populage, Public, Pueblo.]
Etymology [Cf. OF. popler, puepler, F. puepler. Cf. Populate.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “people”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details