Physiognomy

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /fɪziˈɒnəmi/

Definitions

1. The characteristic appearance of a person's face, or the general aspect and features of a landscape or other natural phenomenon
2. The arrangement of facial traits believed to reflect an individual's personality ; the overall look or visual impression of a place or object
3. The facial expression and structure thought to reveal character or mood ; the distinctive appearance of a landscape or thing as observed visually

Etymology: Physiognomy once reached English in a shorter, rougher form. Middle English "phisonomie" was regularly worn down to something like "physnomy" (pronounced roughly "FIZ-nuh-mee"), and that older shape survived into Early Modern English; Shakespeare's "fisnomie" in "All's Well That Ends Well" is a spelling of the same family. The modern spelling and pronunciation were restored later under the influence of learned Latin and Greek. The word's deeper roots are Greek. "Phusiognōmía" was built from "phúsis," meaning nature or physical form, and "gnṓmē," meaning means of knowing or judgement. The sense was therefore the reading of a person's nature from the outward form of the face and body. Latin took the word as "physiognomia" in Late Latin, and it passed into French and then English. Its meaning has widened over time. Today it describes the characteristic look of a face, but it is also used of the general features of a landscape or natural phenomenon, carrying the older idea of reading character from outward form into the description of places.

Synonyms: face, countenance, features, expression, appearance