artificial person

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Person \Per"son\ (p[~e]r"s'n; 277), n. [OE. persone, persoun,
   person, parson, OF. persone, F. personne, L. persona a mask
   (used by actors), a personage, part, a person, fr. personare
   to sound through; per + sonare to sound. See {Per-}, and cf.
   {Parson}.]
   1. A character or part, as in a play; a specific kind or
      manifestation of individual character, whether in real
      life, or in literary or dramatic representation; an
      assumed character. [Archaic]
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            His first appearance upon the stage in his new
            person of a sycophant or juggler.     --Bacon.
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            No man can long put on a person and act a part.
                                                  --Jer. Taylor.
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            To bear rule, which was thy part
            And person, hadst thou known thyself aright.
                                                  --Milton.
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            How different is the same man from himself, as he
            sustains the person of a magistrate and that of a
            friend!                               --South.
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   2. The bodily form of a human being; body; outward
      appearance; as, of comely person.
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            A fair persone, and strong, and young of age.
                                                  --Chaucer.
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            If it assume my noble father's person. --Shak.
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            Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined.
                                                  --Milton.
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   3. A living, self-conscious being, as distinct from an animal
      or a thing; a moral agent; a human being; a man, woman, or
      child.
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            Consider what person stands for; which, I think, is
            a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and
            reflection.                           --Locke.
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   4. A human being spoken of indefinitely; one; a man; as, any
      person present.
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   5. A parson; the parish priest. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
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   6. (Theol.) Among Trinitarians, one of the three subdivisions
      of the Godhead (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost);
      an hypostasis. "Three persons and one God." --Bk. of Com.
      Prayer.
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   7. (Gram.) One of three relations or conditions (that of
      speaking, that of being spoken to, and that of being
      spoken of) pertaining to a noun or a pronoun, and thence
      also to the verb of which it may be the subject.
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   Note: A noun or pronoun, when representing the speaker, is
         said to be in the first person; when representing what
         is spoken to, in the second person; when representing
         what is spoken of, in the third person.
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   8. (Biol.) A shoot or bud of a plant; a polyp or zooid of the
      compound Hydrozoa, Anthozoa, etc.; also, an individual, in
      the narrowest sense, among the higher animals. --Haeckel.
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            True corms, composed of united person[ae] . . .
            usually arise by gemmation, . . . yet in sponges and
            corals occasionally by fusion of several originally
            distinct persons.                     --Encyc. Brit.
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   {Artificial person}, or {Fictitious person} (Law), a
      corporation or body politic; -- this term is used in
      contrast with {natural person}, a real human being. See
      also {legal person}. --Blackstone.

   {Legal person} (Law), an individual or group that is allowed
      by law to take legal action, as plaintiff or defendent. It
      may include natural persons as well as fictitious persons
      (such as corporations).

   {Natural person} (Law), a man, woman, or child, in
      distinction from a corporation.

   {In person}, by one's self; with bodily presence, rather than
      by remote communication; not by representative. "The king
      himself in person is set forth." --Shak.

   {In the person of}, in the place of; acting for. --Shak.
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from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Artificial \Ar`ti*fi"cial\, a. [L. artificialis, fr. artificium:
   cf. F. artificiel. See {Artifice}.]
   1. Made or contrived by art; produced or modified by human
      skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as, artificial
      heat or light, gems, salts, minerals, fountains, flowers.
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            Artificial strife
            Lives in these touches, livelier than life. --Shak.
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   2. Feigned; fictitious; assumed; affected; not genuine.
      "Artificial tears." --Shak.
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   3. Artful; cunning; crafty. [Obs.] --Shak.
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   4. Cultivated; not indigenous; not of spontaneous growth; as,
      artificial grasses. --Gibbon.
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   {Artificial arguments} (Rhet.), arguments invented by the
      speaker, in distinction from laws, authorities, and the
      like, which are called inartificial arguments or proofs.
      --Johnson.

   {Artificial classification} (Science), an arrangement based
      on superficial characters, and not expressing the true
      natural relations species; as, "the artificial system" in
      botany, which is the same as the Linn[ae]an system.

   {Artificial horizon}. See under {Horizon}.

   {Artificial light}, any light other than that which proceeds
      from the heavenly bodies.

   {Artificial lines}, lines on a sector or scale, so contrived
      as to represent the logarithmic sines and tangents, which,
      by the help of the line of numbers, solve, with tolerable
      exactness, questions in trigonometry, navigation, etc.

   {Artificial numbers}, logarithms.

   {Artificial person} (Law). See under {Person}.

   {Artificial sines}, {tangents}, etc., the same as logarithms
      of the natural sines, tangents, etc. --Hutton.
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from Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
ARTIFICIAL PERSON. In a figurative sense, a body of men or company are
sometimes called an artificial person, because the law associates them as
one, and gives them various powers possessed by natural persons.
Corporations are such artificial persons. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 177.
    

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