'personify' originates from Late Latin, specifically the word 'personificare', where 'persona' meant 'person' or 'mask' and '-ficare' (from 'facere') meant 'to make'.

'personificare' passed into Old French as 'personifier' and then into Middle English, eventually becoming the modern English 'personify'.

Initially, it meant 'to make into a person' or 'to give the qualities of a person', and this core meaning has largely remained, evolving into the general sense of attributing human characteristics to non-human entities.