people

From Middle English peple, peeple, from Anglo-Norman people, from Old French pueple, peuple, pople (modern French peuple), from Latin populus (“people”), of unknown origin. Probably of non-Indo-European origin, from Etruscan pupluna (pupluna, “people”). Gradually ousted native Middle English lede, leed (“people”) (from Old English lēode) - compare modern German Leute (“people”), while partially displaced folk, from Old English folc.

Originally a singular noun (e.g. The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness --2 Samuel 17:29, King James Version), the plural aspect of people is probably due to influence from Middle English lede, leed, a plural since Old English times (compare Old English lēode (“people, men, persons”), plural of Old English lēod (“man, person”)). See also lede, leod.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpiːpəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpipəl/, /ˈpipl̩/

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• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -iːpəl
• Hyphenation: peo‧ple
• Homophone: papal (some dialects)

people (countable and uncountable, plural peoples)

1. Used as plural of person; a body of human beings considered generally or collectively; a group of two or more persons.

   Why do so many people commit suicide?

   • c. 1607, plaque recording the Bristol Channel floods:

     XXII people was in this parrish drownd.

   • 1813, Jane Austen, chapter 6, in Pride and Prejudice‎, OCLC 38659585:

     "What a charming amusement for young people this is, Mr. Darcy! There is nothing like dancing after all. I consider it as one of the first refinements of polished society."

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 12, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎, →ISBN, OCLC 647181172, archived from the original on 22 November 2017:

     There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎, →ISBN, archived from the original on May 9, 2016:

     “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
       Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”

   • 2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8838, archived from the original on 10 October 2018, page 11:

     But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.

   • 2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8842, archived from the original on 3 November 2018, page 72-3:

     Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.

2. (countable) Persons forming or belonging to a particular group, such as a nation, class, ethnic group, country, family, etc; folk; a community.
   • 1966, Dick Tuck, Concession Speech:

     The people have spoken, the bastards.

3. A group of persons regarded as being employees, followers, companions or subjects of a ruler.
   • 1611, Old Testament, King James Version, 2 Samuel 8:15:

     And David reigned over all Israel; and David executed judgment and justice unto all his people.

   • 1952, Old Testament, Revised Standard Version, Thomas Nelson & Sons, Isaiah 1:3:

     The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand.

4. One's colleagues or employees.
   • 2001, Vince Flynn, Transfer of Power (fiction), Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 250:

     Kennedy looked down at Flood's desk and thought about the possibilities. "Can you locate him?"
     "I already have my people checking on all three. So far I've only been able to confirm the whereabouts of the Jordanian officer."

   • 2008, Fern Michaels, Hokus Pokus (fiction), →ISBN, page 184:

     Can I have one of my people get back to your people, Mr. President?" She tried to slam the phone back into the base and failed.

5. A person's ancestors, relatives or family.

   My people lived through the Black Plague and the Thirty Years War.

6. The mass of a community as distinguished from a special class (elite); the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; the citizens.
   • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “Conscious computing: how to take control of your life online”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 189, number 2, archived from the original on August 24, 2013, page 27:

     The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […] "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.

people

1. plural of person.

• When used to mean "persons" (meaning 1 above), "people" today takes a plural verb. However, in the past it could take a singular verb (see image).

Plaque recording the Bristol Channel floods, 1607 New Style. Caption reads in part, "XXII PEOPLE WAS IN THIS PARRISH DROWND".

• Nowadays, "persons" as the plural of "person" is considered highly formal.

• (plural of person, human beings): peeps (slang), lede (leod)
• (persons belonging to a group): collective, community, congregation, folk, nation, clan, tribe, race, class, caste, club
• (followers): fans, groupies, supporters
• (ancestors or relatives): kin, kith, folks
• (mass of a community): populace, commoners, citizenry

• sheeple

people (third-person singular simple present peoples, present participle peopling, simple past and past participle peopled)

1. (transitive) To stock with people or inhabitants; to fill as with people; to populate.
   • 1674, John Dryden, The State of Innocence and the Fall of Man, Act II, Scene I:

     He would not be alone, who all things can; / But peopled Heav'n with Angels, Earth with Man.

2. (intransitive) To become populous or populated.
3. (transitive) To inhabit; to occupy; to populate.
   • a. 1645, John Milton, Il Penseroso, lines 7–8:

     […] / As thick and numberless / As the gay motes that people the Sun Beams, / […]

• peopler

• people in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• People on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• People in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• pipole

Borrowed from English people.

• IPA^(key): /pi.pɔl/

people m (plural peoples)

1. (countable) A celebrity, a famous person.
   • 2004, Emmanuel Davidenkoff and Didier Hassoux, Luc Ferry: une comédie du pouvoir, 2002–2004 (Luc Ferry: A Comedy of Power, 2002–2004), Hachette, →ISBN,

     Le novice en politique contre le mammouth « Éducation nationale ». Ça mérite la sympathie. Et puis c’est un people. Les gens aiment et détestent à la fois. Ils sont fascinés. Le bonheur sur papier glacé. Les vacances entre Saint-Trop’, la Martinique et Deauville.

     The political novice against the mammoth "National Education". That merited sympathy. Then, too, he was a celebrity. People loved and hated at the same time. They were fascinated. Happiness on ice paper. Vacations between Saint-Tropez, Martinique, and Deauville.

   • 2008, Martine Delvaux, "L’égoïsme romantique de Frédéric Beigbeder" ("Frédéric Beigbeder's L’égoïsme romantique (Romantic Egotism)"), in Alain-Philippe Durand (editor), Frédéric Beigbeder et ses doubles (Frédéric Beigbeder and His Doubles), Rodopi, →ISBN, page 95:

     Oscar Dufresne est un people anti-people, un macho impuissant, un intellectuel qui ne dit rien d’intelligent, un faux sadique et un faux masochiste, un anti-autobiographe.

     Oscar Dufresne is a celebrity who is anti-celebrity, a powerless macho man, an intellectual who says nothing intelligent, a fake sadist and a fake masochist, an anti-autobiographer.

• The French noun people is frequently italicized as a loanword, as in the quotations above.

• (a celebrity): célébrité, personne connue, personnalité, personnage public

• pipolisation