per se

See also: perse and Perse

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin per se (“by itself”), from per (“by, through”) and se (“itself, himself, herself, themselves”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /pəːˈseɪ/
  • (US) IPA(key): /pɚːˈseɪ/

Adverb

per se (not comparable)

  1. necessarily
  2. In and of itself; by itself; without consideration of extraneous factors.
    The law makes drunk driving illegal per se.
    As your substitute teacher, my issue is not about your respect for me per se, but to see that you are not causing disruptions for other students or giving me a bad impression of yourself.
  3. (chiefly in negative polarity environments) As such; as one would expect from the name.
    Well, that's not correct per se, but the situation is something like that.
  4. (law) As a matter of law.

Usage notes

  • Because this is originally a Latin phrase, it is sometimes italicized when it is written.

Quotations

  • For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:per se.

Synonyms

Translations

Anagrams

Dutch

Alternative forms

  • (obsolete since spelling reform of 1995) persé

Etymology

From Latin per se (“by itself”), from per (“by, through”) and se (“itself, himself, herself, themselves”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pɛrˈseː/
  • Audio(file)

Adverb

per se

  1. necessarily, absolutely, without fail
  2. on purpose
  3. (rare) per se

Usage notes

The ‘necessity’ meaning is the usual one; the original Latin meaning as in English is rarely used and can be misunderstood.

Anagrams

Latin

Prepositional phrase

per sē

  1. per se
  2. by itself
  3. through itself

Portuguese

Adverb

per se (not comparable)

  1. per se (without considering extraneous factors)
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