A Dictionary of Cont..

stood in this sense (May 1 have leave to speak?
You have good leave to leave us), but it is
slightly archaic and hence now seems formal.
Thus the old phrase By your leave, which not
too long ago meant no more than “please,” now
seems stiffly formal and is used chiefly, because
of this seeming excess of formality, ironically.
permit as a verb may be followed by an infmitive,
as in he permitted me to leave. When the permission
is impersonal, permit may be followed
by the -ing form of a verb, as in circumstances
do not permit my leaving, but even here the
infinitive is more usual, as in circumstances do
not permit me to leave. See also allow. For
permit as a noun, see permission.
perpetrate; commit. Perpetrate is a transitive verb
which conveys one meaning only: to perform,
execute or commit something bad (A skillful detective
writer keeps even his most acute readers
wondering who has perpetrated the crime).
Commit is a transitive verb which can be used
in at least eight senses. Its basic sense is to give
in trust or charge, to consign (Into thine hand Z
commit my spirit). In its commonest sense, however,
it means to do, perform, perpetrate (I
committed an error in addition. We must find
the man who committed the crime). In their
parallel senses, commit and perpetrate can refer
only to the enactment of crimes or blunders and,
unless one wants to use melodramatic language,
commit is to be preferred. Perpetrate is often
used humorously to imply that something which
has been done is of the nature of a crime, as in
perpetrating a joke or a plan. But in this sense
it has been worn out and should be avoided.
perpetual. See eternal.
perpetually. See constantly.
persecute; prosecute. Persecute, used transitively
only, means to pursue with harassing or oppressive
treatment, to harass persistently, to oppress
with injury or punishment for adherence to
principles or religious faith (Nero’s evil repntation
stems largely from the fact that he persecuted
the early Christians), to annoy by
persistent attentions, importunities, or th:e like
(Most Americans have become reconciled to
being persecuted by representatives of worthy
causes in their communities).
Prosecute, used transitively, is chiefly a legal
term meaning to institute proceedings against a
person, to seek to enforce or obtain by legal
process, to conduct criminal proceedings in court
against (Violators of traffic rules will be prosecuted),
to follow or go on with something undertaken
or begun (He was prosecuting a course
of studies begun nearly a decade ago), to carry
on or practice. Used intransitively, prosecute has
the legal sense of instituting and carrying on a
legal prosecution, of acting as prosecutor (Zj
you continzle this trespassing, 1’11 prosecute).
persiflage means, literally, whistle talk. It is light
banter in which seriousness and frivolity iare SO
mixed that the speaker may evade responsibility
for what he wants the listener to infer. Since it
assumes a superiority in the speaker and relquires
a skill and adroitness that few have, it usually
365 personal
degenerates quickly into sneering and scoflng.
Except where one does not wish to be drawn
into a serious conversation or wishes to annoy
a pompous bore, persiflage is well avoided. It
can be extremely tedious.
An unusually dreary form of persiflage is in
America called dozzbletalk, a process in which
the speaker deliberately uses confusing nonsense
in order to triumph at the listener’s bewilderment.
The victim, after he has been bored and
insulted, is expected to applaud the speaker’s
wit.
persistently. See consistently.
person. For the use of this word as a grammatical
term, see personal pronouns and agreement:
verbs. See also people, individual, and party.
personage; person; personality. Personage should
not be used as a synonym for person. It means
a person of distinction or importance (When
Lindbergh took off he was just another flyer:
when he landed at Paris he was a personage).
The word was formerlv used a great deal in Enrrland
to designate a member of The Royal Family
when a use of a proper name would have been
indiscreet. (A Certain Great Personage has
lately been mzich seen in Mrs. Langtry’s company).
In American slang the word has largely
been replaced in recent years by the military
term V.I.P. (Very lmportant Person), usually
employed ironically.
Personage is also used sometimes to designate
a character in a story or a play (Othello is a
personage the nobility of whose character many
modern critics have questioned).
Though not yet recognized as standard, personality
is used widely in the United States today
as a synonym for personage, especially to describe
notables of the screen or radio or television.
So-and-so is said to be a television personality,
particularly when he is known to the
public but cannot easily be classified as an actor
or a newscaster. In this sense it is useful. Personage
would be better, but the public has fixed
on personality and shows every sign of adhering
to it. See also personality.
persona grata, persona non grata. Except in the
language of diplomacy, where it is too firmly
established to be regarded as even a clichC, to
refer to someone whose company is desirable as
persona grata or to someone whose company is
undesirable as persona non grata is pompous. It
implies that the speaker sees trivial dislikes as
matters of international protocol and veils the
obvious in the dead language of dead learning.
personal; personnel. Personal is an adjective meaning
of or pertaining to a particular person, individual,
private (This is a personal matter; Z see
no need to discuss it with a bunch of reporters).
It also means in person. A few purists object to
this, insisting that if one is someplace he is, of
necessity, there in person. But the moving pictures
have changed this. An appearance may be
merely on celluloid. A personal appearance implies
presence in bodily form. Many film actors
and actresses appear bodily in front of the
screens that are to show their images. The public