the.com/personnel
People, rebranded as inventory so firing them sounds like logistics.
means The people who work for an organization, especially when talked about collectively rather than as individuals.
from From French 'personnel,' itself from 'personne' (person), tracing back to Latin 'persona' — originally a theatrical mask an actor wore to project a role. The word entered English military and bureaucratic usage to mean 'the staff of an organization treated as a group,' which is fitting: it still names people by the role they play rather than who they are.
- spelling tell
- two n's, two l's, zero excuses for typos
- origin
- french for staff, borrowed to sound official
- usage shift
- now mostly lives in HR euphemisms
- singular trap
- never personnels, always collective and plural-minded