Peopleless

[pee-puh l] /ˈpi pəl/

noun, plural peoples for 4.
1.
persons indefinitely or collectively; persons in general:
to find it easy to talk to people; What will people think?
2.
persons, whether men, women, or children, considered as numerable individuals forming a group:
Twenty people volunteered to help.
3.
human beings, as distinguished from animals or other beings.
4.
the entire body of persons who constitute a community, tribe, nation, or other group by virtue of a common culture, history, religion, or the like:
the people of Australia; the Jewish people.
5.
the persons of any particular group, company, or number (sometimes used in combination):
the people of a parish; educated people; salespeople.
6.
the ordinary persons, as distinguished from those who have wealth, rank, influence, etc.:
a man of the people.
7.
the subjects, followers, or subordinates of a ruler, leader, employer, etc.:
the king and his people.
8.
the body of enfranchised citizens of a state:
representatives chosen by the people.
9.
a person’s family or relatives:
My grandmother’s people came from Iowa.
10.
(used in the possessive in Communist or left-wing countries to indicate that an institution operates under the control of or for the benefit of the people, especially under Communist leadership):
people’s republic; people’s army.
11.
animals of a specified kind:
the monkey people of the forest.
verb (used with object), peopled, peopling.
12.
to furnish with people; populate.
13.
to supply or stock as if with people:
a meadow peopled with flowers.
/ˈpiːpəl/
noun (usually functioning as pl)
1.
persons collectively or in general
2.
a group of persons considered together: blind people
3.
(pl) peoples. the persons living in a country and sharing the same nationality: the French people
4.
one’s family: he took her home to meet his people
5.
persons loyal to someone powerful: the king’s people accompanied him in exile
6.
the people

verb
7.
(transitive) to provide with or as if with people or inhabitants
n.

late 13c., “humans, persons in general,” from Anglo-French people, Old French peupel “people, population, crowd; mankind, humanity,” from Latin populus “a people, nation; body of citizens; a multitude, crowd, throng,” of unknown origin, possibly from Etruscan. The Latin word also is the source of Spanish pueblo, Italian popolo. In English, it displaced native folk.

Meaning “body of persons comprising a community” first recorded late 13c. in Anglo-French; meaning “common people, masses” (as distinguished from the nobility) first recorded c.1300 in Anglo-French. Meaning “one’s own tribe, group, etc.” is from late 14c. The word was adopted after c.1920 by Communist totalitarian states to give a spurious sense of populism to their governments. Legal phrase The People vs., in U.S. cases of prosecution under certain laws, dates from 1801. People of the Book “those whose religion entails adherence to a book of divine revelation (1834) translates Arabic Ahl al-Kitab.
v.

late 15c. (intransitive), c.1500 (transitive), from people (n.), or else from Middle French peupler, from Old French peuple. Related: Peopled; peopling.

noun

A person: She’s great people (1926+)

Related Terms

the beautiful people, boat people, free people, jesus freaks, night people, road people, street people
In addition to the idiom beginning with people