NODE / 0836attestedAncient Greek
πρόσωπον
TRANSLITERATION prósōpon
face; countenance; mask; character
- DATE
- Ancient Greek
- SENSE
- face mask character
- FAMILY
- Indo-European / Hellenic
- CANONICAL KEY
- node:10:prosopon:attested:sense:face-mask-character
Proposed deeper comparison behind Etruscan phersu; preserved as uncertain, not forced ancestry.
01ANCESTRAL EDGES
ROOT OF THIS ROOT
GO DEEPERcompound componentestablished
Ancient Greek · Ancient Greek · eye faceὤψ
eye; face
- SOUND
- Greek πρόσωπον is conventionally analyzed with ὤψ or ὠπ-, eye or face, beside separately modeled pros-.
- MEANING
- Face and eye supply the visible-surface component that develops mask and character senses.
- CHRONOLOGY
- A morphological analysis inside Greek.
- SCHOLAR
- American Heritage Dictionary Editors · Liddell, Scott, and Jones
- CONFIDENCE
- established
GO DEEPERcompound componentestablished
Ancient Greek · Ancient Greek · toward near prefixπρός
toward; near; at
- SOUND
- Greek πρόσωπον contains pros- beside ōps or ōp-, eye or face.
- MEANING
- The relational prefix participates in the face or visible-surface formation.
- SCHOLAR
- American Heritage Dictionary Editors
- CONFIDENCE
- established
02DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES
THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP
DESCENDANTproposed comparisonproposed
Etruscan · Etruscan, 6th century BCE · masked figurephersu
masked figure or ritual character
- SOUND
- Etruscan phersu has been compared with Greek πρόσωπον, but the exact historical direction and mediation are uncertain.
- MEANING
- Masked figure, face, mask, and character provide a semantic comparison.
- SCHOLAR
- Merriam-Webster Editors · Marta Di Napoli
- CONFIDENCE
- proposed — The graph preserves the published comparison without upgrading it to consensus ancestry.
03TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE
EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE
This is the complete downstream closure currently supported by the canonical graph. Every displayed step is a real reviewed edge with its own sound claim, meaning claim, scholar, confidence, and citations.
- UNIQUE DESCENDANT NODES
- 5
- REVIEWED EDGES
- 5
- DEEPEST PATH
- 5
- MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED
- 1
HISTORICAL STEP 011 EDGE
STEP 01proposed comparisonproposed
- SOUND
- Etruscan phersu has been compared with Greek πρόσωπον, but the exact historical direction and mediation are uncertain.
- MEANING
- Masked figure, face, mask, and character provide a semantic comparison.
Merriam-Webster Editors · Marta Di Napoli2 CITATIONSEDGE 837 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 021 EDGE
STEP 02competing borrowingproposed
- SOUND
- Latin persōna is probably related to or borrowed from Etruscan phersu.
- MEANING
- An Etruscan masked figure is proposed behind the Latin mask, role, and person word.
Oxford Classical Dictionary Editors · Marta Di Napoli · Merriam-Webster Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 836 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 031 EDGE
STEP 03inheritanceestablished
- SOUND
- Anglo-French persone continues Latin persōna.
- MEANING
- Mask, role, character, and person senses travel through Romance.
Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 835 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 041 EDGE
STEP 04borrowingestablished
- SOUND
- Middle English persone was borrowed through Anglo-French persone.
- MEANING
- The person and character noun crosses through French into English.
HISTORICAL STEP 051 EDGE
STEP 05continuationestablished
- SOUND
- Modern person continues Middle English persone with loss of final unstressed e and stabilized spelling.
- MEANING
- Role and individual reference develop into the modern person noun.
Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 833 ↗ “Every” means every descendant in the reviewed SET-U graph. It does not convert missing scholarship or missing ingestion into a claim of historical completeness. The coverage ledger remains the honest denominator.
04RECORDED EVIDENCE
ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE
NO RECORDED WITNESS ATTACHED.The reviewed graph does not yet attach a source-reported or directly inspected witness to this canonical form.
05EDITORIAL REUSE
WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE