Visager

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who studies the face specifically to determine emotions or intentions
2. An individual who observes and interprets facial expressions for insight into feelings and thoughts
3. Someone who analyzes facial features to understand behavior and psychological states

Etymology: The root is "visage," which English borrowed from Old French in the 14th century. The French word came from Latin "visus," meaning sight or appearance, and originally referred to the look or aspect of a thing before it came to mean the face. Most people know it from the phrase "in visage," but English also has "visagiste," a French-derived term for a makeup artist, which shows the same root applied to the face as something to be shaped and read. "Visager" is not in standard dictionaries, so its history is not documented. It appears to be a transparent formation: "visage" plus the agent suffix "-er," meaning one who does the action named by the base, here reading faces.

Synonyms: face reader, facial analyst