One picture holds both uses: something that is not a person is given a human shape. In writing and art you build that shape on purpose — the wind whispers, Death wears a black coat, a river becomes an old man with a beard. When you say a person is the personification of patience, the same picture turns around: the quality already has a human shape, and it is standing in front of you.
From the word’s history
The word is built from person + -ify + -ification: the act of making something into a person, or the result of doing so. That literal build is exactly the picture above.
這個字字面上就是 person（人）＋ -ify（使變成）＋ -ification（動作或結果），也就是「把某樣東西變成人」。字的結構和上面那個畫面完全同一件事。
Wiktionary entry for 'personification' (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:889958103): "From person(ify) + -ification."
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