Physiognomia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The practice of reading someone's personality or character from the shape and features of their face ; the face or outward form of a person
2. An old pseudoscience that claims character can be judged from facial traits ; the countenance or external look of an individual
3. The assessment of a person's temperament through the appearance of their face ; the visible features that make up someone's face or looks

Etymology: Physiognomy is the practice of judging a person's character from the face and body, and the word itself came from Greek roots meaning knowledge of nature. The Greek "physiognōmonia" combined "physis," nature or natural form, with "gnōmōn," one who knows or judges, from the verb "gignōskein," to know. In Greek thought the face was read as a natural sign of inner qualities, and the idea was attached to Aristotle and later writers, though much of the surviving material is attributed to them rather than securely their own. The word reached English in the 16th century, borrowed through Latin "physiognomia" and French "physionomie." Its sense was originally the art of reading character, and the everyday word "physiognomy," meaning the face or its appearance, grew out of that older usage. Physiognomy gained a scientific reputation in the 18th century, when Johann Kaspar Lavater published his influential essays on the subject in the 1770s and 1780s. Its claims were later discredited, and the word now mostly survives in literary and anatomical contexts.