Physnomy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The face or countenance, especially as an expression of a person's character ; the old practice of reading a person's character from the features of their face
2. A person's countenance or the look of their features ; the traditional art of inferring someone's nature from their facial appearance
3. The visage or facial form of a person ; the former study of judging temperament and disposition by observing the face

Etymology: Physnomy is a syncopated form of "physiognomy," meaning the face or outward features of a person, and the shortened version lost the middle syllables of its parent word. The full word "physiognomy" is built from the Greek roots "physis," meaning nature, and "gnomon," meaning one who knows or judges, so the original idea was reading a person's character from the shape of the face. The shorter form appears in the record as a variant of the longer word, and it keeps the same sense. Because it is a clipped spelling rather than a separate coinage, it has no distinct history of its own beyond that of its parent.