But ~ doesn't mean person. It means 'home'. Hence, 'ls ~' lists the contents of your home directory and 'cd ~root' takes you to home directory of root. In web

But ~ doesn't mean person. It means 'home'. Hence, 'ls ~' lists the contents of your home directory and 'cd ~root' takes you to home directory of root. In web context ~user translated to 'home of user' which was fitting in most cases.