Persona

How to spell persona

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce persona

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does persona mean?

1. nounThe character or image a person presents to others, often distinct from their private self.
2. nounA fictional profile representing a typical customer or user, built to guide design and marketing decisions.

Persona in a sentence

• On stage the comedian adopts a brash, confident persona that fades the moment he steps off.

• The design team built a buyer persona to represent their typical online shopper.

• Her warm public persona hid how shy she felt at large gatherings.

• Each marketing persona described a user's goals, budget, and daily habits.

Where does persona come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin persona, which originally meant the mask worn by an actor on the stage. One popular and old explanation links it to per (through) and sonare (to sound), the idea being that the actor's voice sounded through the mouth-hole of the mask, though scholars are not fully certain of that derivation. From the literal mask, the meaning broadened in Latin to the dramatic role itself and then to the character or part a person plays in life, which is also why we speak of the 'dramatis personae', the characters of a play. English adopted persona in this theatrical and psychological sense, and the same root sits behind the everyday word 'person'. The single 's' and the plain Latin '-a' ending are the spots to watch, since the word kept its original Latin form rather than being anglicised.

How the word is built

• per- (through)
• son (sound, from sonare 'to sound')
• -a (Latin noun ending)