Can you please give me a definition of "Character" Not a caracter in a play or movie. Thank you very much

-- Gaston de la Sablonniere (gdls@accesscomm.ca), April 11, 2004

Answers

Here are the relevant parts of the Oxford English Dictionary's (very extensive) definition.

I. Literal senses.
[7 definitions...]

II. Figurative senses.

8. a. A distinctive mark, evidence, or token; a feature, trait, characteristic. arch. in gen. use.

1502 Ord. Crysten Men I. iii. (W. de W. 1506) 39 A spyrytuell token yt these theologyens call caractere, that maye neuer be defaced. 1597 BACON Coulers Good & Evill ix. 151 Felicitie seemeth to bee a character of the fauour..of the diuine powers. 1654 EVELYN Mem. (1857) III. 65 It were imprudent, and a character of much ignorance to inquire, etc. 1774 BURKE Amer. Tax. Wks. I. 174 Tell me, what one character of liberty the Americans have. 1886 STEVENSON Dr. Jekyll 126 Complete moral insensibility and insensate readiness to evil, which were the leading characters of E.H.

b. now esp. in Natural History. One of the distinguishing features of a species or genus. See also acquired character s.v. ACQUIRED ppl. a. (c).

1727-51 CHAMBERS Cycl., Character of a Plant. See Genus, Characteristic, etc. 1776 WITHERING Bot. Arrangem. (1796) 127 The most striking character is the 2 upright petals at the top. 1875 DAWSON Dawn of Life ii. 34 Dr. Hunt has discussed very fully their chemical characters. 1878 19th C. Dec. 1037 These attributes of structure, size, shape, and colour are what are called its ‘specific characters’.

9. The aggregate of the distinctive features of any thing; essential peculiarity; nature, style; sort, kind, description.

1659 PEARSON Creed (1839) 372 The character of the day on which our Saviour died is undeniable. 1790 BURKE Corr. (1844) III. 173 Your paper has much more the character of a piece in an adverse controversy. 1840 CARLYLE Heroes (1858) 234 Natural stupidity is by no means the character of Mahomet's Book. 1855 MACAULAY Hist. Eng. IV. 90 He now tried to give to the war the character of a crusade. 1866 CRUMP Banking ii. 59 The amount and character of the deposits of English banks.

10. The face or features as betokening moral qualities; personal appearance. Obs.

1601 SHAKES. Twel. N. I. ii. 51, I will beleeue thou hast a minde that suites With this thy faire and outward charracter. 1607 Cor. V. iv. 28, I paint him in the Character. 1768 STERNE Sent. Journ. (1778) I. 68 She was a widow, and wore a character of distress.

11. The sum of the moral and mental qualities which distinguish an individual or a race, viewed as a homogeneous whole; the individuality impressed by nature and habit on man or nation; mental or moral constitution.

1647 CLARENDON Hist. Reb. I. I. 36 The Nature, and Character, and Fortune of the Duke. 1660 C. LYTTELTON Let. in Hatton Corr. (1878) 20, I heare he writt the King's charractker. 1705 ADDISON Italy 9 Cunning, Industrious, and enur'd to Hardship..which was likewise the Character of the old Ligurians. 1729 BUTLER Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 158 There is greater variety of parts in what we call a character, than there are features in a face. 1839 KEIGHTLEY Hist. Eng. II. 74 Thorough selfishness formed the basis of Henry's character. 1875 MANNING Mission H. Ghost ii. 52 The character is that intellectual and moral texture into which all our life long we have been weaving up the inward life that is in us.

12. a. Moral qualities strongly developed or strikingly displayed; distinct or distinguished character; character worth speaking of.

1735 POPE Ep. Lady 2 Most Women have no Characters at all. 1737 WHISTON Josephus' Wars IV. xi. §4 As the day came on, many men of character came over. 1818 JAS. MILL Brit. India II. V. viii. 660 Too void of character, to write anything of himself. 1859 J. S. MILL Liberty 108 A person whose desires and impulses are his ownare the expression of his own nature, as it has been developed and modified by his own cultureis said to have a character. One whose desires and impulses are not his own, has no character, no more than a steam-engine has a character.

b. transf.

1781 J. MOORE View Soc. It. (1790) I. xlv. 500 What is usually called Character in a face, is probably excess in some of its parts. 1888 W. P. FRITH Autobiog. II. 213 It is an excellent picture and from its strong character must be a good likeness.

[7 more definitions....]

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), April 11, 2004.

As Christopher Green's list of definitions suggests, there are many definitions of "character" not only across different disciplines, but even within disciplines. One place to start, if you are interested in psychological definitions, is A. A. Roback's (1927) book, The Psychology of Character, which covers a number of definitions and approaches and also presents his own theory of character. In the 1910s and 1920s American psychologists began to differentiate between "character" (which carried a moral connotation) and "personality" (which they considered a more "objective" category). J. B. Watson (1919) defined character as personality evaluated according to moral standards and argued that as such it was not a topic for the "objective" science of psychology. G. W. Allport (1937) used this distinction in his own approach to personality. A recent book by Ian Nicholson (2003), Inventing Personality: Gordon Allport and the Science of Selfhood, discusses these developments, including differences and similarities between concepts of character and personality and examining the cultural embeddedness of both concepts.

-- Nicole B. Barenbaum (nbarenba@sewanee.edu), April 11, 2004.

Hi Gaston, I am not an expert on the definition of character, but I wonder if the term is typically used today to refer to a person who has a strong set of standards, that they generally adher to. This personality (characteristic pattern of behavior and mental activity) trait, like most other personality traits may best be conceptualized in terms in terms of a continuum (matter of degree). You might want to check out Kurt Lewin's early emphasis on the value of using continua in psychology, or investigate General Sematics, which in the early 20th century tried to get us to speak about ourselves and the world more clearly (see Count Korzybski or Senator Hiyakawa). Hope this helps. Paul

-- Paul Kleinginna (pkleinginna@georgiasouthern.edu), April 17, 2004.

Character is who we are when no one is watching.

-- visualize me (visualizeme@webtv.net), April 21, 2004.

character can be only the smallest mimic on the face or the union of all...

character is what we chose to reflect as reaction to all of the things that we let happen...

-- cerennn (cerenimo83@hotmail.com), April 25, 2004.

Character is defined as: "What you're thinking and doing, when no one knows you're thinking and doing it."

The formula for success in life is unfortunatly the same for failure. It goes like this.. INPUT > THOUGHTS > WORDS > ACTIONS > HABITS > CHARACTER > DESTINY

Input is what is around you..what is around you creates Thoughts.. Thoughts are talked about, creating Words..when you talk about something long enough you usually do it creating and Action, Actions are nothing more than words manifested by the body..When you do something enough times it becomes a Habit,Habits will define your character..Character is created from an all consuming thought or action..Character ultimately defines your Destiny.

-- Owen Parsley (crazywolf239@yahoo.com), October 21, 2004.