1. a person (used to express importance or elevated status): "it was no less a personage than the bishop"
▪ a character in a play or other work:"the key explains who all the personages in the paintings are"
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French, reinforced by medieval Latin personagium ‘effigy’. In early use the word was qualified by words such as honourable, eminent, but since the 19th century the notion ‘significant, notable’ has been implied in the word itself.