per se

See also: perse and Perse

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

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. By itself; without consideration of extraneous factors.

   The law makes drunk driving illegal per se.

2. (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.

3. (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 usage examples of this term, see Citations:per se.

Translations

by itself

• Armenian: ինքնին (inkʿnin)
• Danish: i sig selv
• Dutch: op zich, per se (nl)
• Estonian: iseseisvalt
• Finnish: sinänsä, lähtökohtaisesti (fi)
• French: en soi
• German: per se (de), an sich (de)
• Hebrew: כשלעצמו (kshe-le-ats-mo)

• Icelandic: í sjálfu sér, út af fyrir sig
• Italian: di per se
• Persian: به خودی خود (fa) (be xodi-e xod), فی‌نفسه (fa) (fi-nafseh)
• Portuguese: per se
• Russian: сам по себе́ m (sam po sebé)
• Spanish: per se (es)
• Swedish: i sig, per se (sv)

Anagrams

• esper
• peers, Peers
• spree

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Dutch

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛrˈseː/

• Audio

  (file)

Alternative forms

• (obsolete since spelling reform of 1995) persé

Adverb

per se

1. necessarily, absolutely, without fail
2. (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

• prees
• speer

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Latin

Adverb

per sē

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

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Portuguese

Adverb

per se (not comparable)

1. per se (without considering extraneous factors)