Is there a difference in meaning between the words *people* and *persons*? - eviltoast

I often use the word people to mean multiple persons. However, I’ve noticed that sometimes people will laugh/smirk when I use it. For example, one time I was talking about how my sister and her family/household travel often, saying, “Those people travel a lot,” and the person repeated those people and gave a slight laugh. I’m wondering if I may be giving some sort of unintentional implied message when I use that word.

Does the word people mean anything other than multiple persons, such as a group of persons united by a common identity (family, experience, nationality, ethnicity, etc.)?

  • tlou3please@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    My understanding is that “persons” refers to people in discrete groups, where what separates those groups is pertinent to the topic being discussed.

    For example - ‘indigenous persons’ refers collectively to indigenous people, but acknowledges that there are separate subgroups of indigenous people within that. You could equally say “indigenous people” and it would be correct but you lose that nuance by not acknowledging that there are internal divisions within the group you are referring to.

    Not saying that’s the dictionary definition, but that’s how it’s generally used in my field.