Personally
adverbIn one's own view, or done by oneself rather than by someone else.
How to spell personally
10 letters · 4 syllables
How to pronounce personally
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does personally mean?
- adverbIn one's own view, or done by oneself rather than by someone else.
Personally in a sentence
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She personally preferred to handle the accounts herself.
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The manager dealt with the complaint personally rather than passing it on.
Where does personally come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word traces back to the Latin persona, which originally meant the mask worn by an actor on stage and, by extension, the character or role being played. Over time persona came to mean a human being or individual, and from it Latin formed personalis, meaning 'belonging to a particular person'. English borrowed the adjective 'personal' through Old French during the 1300s, and the adverb 'personally' was built on it shortly afterwards by adding the native English ending -ly. The spelling trap lives at the join: 'personal' already ends in -al, so adding -ly produces the double l that writers often drop. Remembering the chain person plus -al plus -ly keeps both letters in place.
How the word is built
- person (from Latin persona: a person, originally a theatrical mask)
- -al (adjective suffix)
- -ly (adverb suffix)
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