Advertisement

Origin and history of visage

visage(n.)

"the face as a part of the body, the front of the head;" also "countenance, look" of a person, "the face as expressive of feeling;" c. 1300, from Anglo-French and Old French visage, visaige "face, countenance; portrait," from vis "face, appearance," from Latin visus "a look, vision," from past-participle stem of videre "to see" (from PIE root *weid- "to see").

Formerly also "assumed or pretended appearance; semblance, mask" (late 14c.), hence visager "shameless liar, one who presents a false face" (early 15c.). Sometimes vis also was used in Middle English for "face of a human or human-like being." Visagiste "makeup artist" is recorded by 1958, from French.

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to visage

envisage(v.)

1778, "look in the face of," from French envisager "look in the face of," from en- "in" (see en- (1)) + visage "face" (see visage). Hence "to apprehend mentally, contemplate" (1837). Related: Envisaged; envisaging; envisagement.

vis-a-vis(prep.)

"in a position facing one another," 1755, from French prepositional use of the adj. vis-à-vis "face to face," from vis "face" (see visage). It also was used 18c. of vehicles with seats arranged so occupants face one another.

*weid-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to see."

It might form all or part of: advice; advise; belvedere; clairvoyant; deja vu; Druid; eidetic; eidolon; envy; evident; guide; guidon; guise; guy (n.1) "small rope, chain, wire;" Gwendolyn; Hades; history; idea; ideo-; idol; idyll; improvisation; improvise; interview; invidious; kaleidoscope; -oid; penguin; polyhistor; prevision; provide; providence; prudent; purvey; purview; review; revise; Rig Veda; story (n.1) "connected account or narration of some happening;" supervise; survey; twit; unwitting; Veda; vide; view; visa; visage; vision; visit; visor; vista; voyeur; wise (adj.) "learned, sagacious, cunning;" wise (n.) "way of proceeding, manner;" wisdom; wiseacre; wit (n.) "mental capacity;" wit (v.) "to know;" witenagemot; witting; wot.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit veda "I know;" Avestan vaeda "I know;" Greek oida, Doric woida "I know," idein "to see;" Old Irish fis "vision," find "white," i.e. "clearly seen," fiuss "knowledge;" Welsh gwyn, Gaulish vindos, Breton gwenn "white;" Gothic, Old Swedish, Old English witan "to know;" Gothic weitan "to see;" English wise, German wissen "to know;" Lithuanian vysti "to see;" Bulgarian vidya "I see;" Polish widzieć "to see," wiedzieć "to know;" Russian videt' "to see," vest' "news," Old Russian vedat' "to know."

    Advertisement

    More to explore

    countenance
    mid-13c., contenaunce, "behavior, bearing, conduct, manners;" early 14c., "outward appearance, looks," from Old French contenance "demeanor, bearing, conduct," from Latin continentia "restraint, abstemiousness, moderation," literally "way one contains oneself," from continentem,
    physiognomy
    late 14c., phisonomie, "art of judging characters from facial features," from Old French fisonomie, phizonomie and directly from Medieval Latin physonomia, from Late Latin physiognomia, from Greek physiognōmia "the judging of a person's nature by his features," from physio- (see
    mug
    "small, cylindrical drinking vessel, often with a handle," 1560s, "bowl, pot, jug," a word of unknown origin, perhaps from Scandinavian (compare Swedish mugg "earthen cup, jug," Norwegian mugge "pitcher, open can for warm drinks"), or Low German mokke, mukke "mug," also of unknow
    lantern
    .; Johnson suggests the idea is "a thin visage, such as if a candle were burning in the mouth might transmit the light."...
    face
    from Vulgar Latin *facia (source also of Italian faccia), from Latin facies "appearance, form, figure," and secondarily "visage...In French, the use of face for "front of the head" was given up 17c. and replaced by visage (older vis), from Latin visus...
    gum
    c. 1300, "resin from dried sap of plants," from Old French gome "(medicinal) gum, resin," from Late Latin gumma, from Latin gummi, from Greek kommi "gum," from Egyptian kemai. As the name of a hardened, sweetened gelatine mixture as a candy, 1827. As a shortened form of chewing g
    expression
    early 15c., expressioun, "action of pressing out;" later "action of manifesting a feeling;" "a putting into words" (mid-15c.); from Late Latin expressionem (nominative expressio) "expression, vividness," in classical Latin "a pressing out, a projection," noun of action from past-
    look
    Old English locian "use the eyes for seeing, gaze, look, behold, spy," from West Germanic *lokjan (source also of Old Saxon lokon "see, look, spy," Middle Dutch loeken "to look," Old High German luogen, German dialectal lugen "to look out"), a word of unknown origin. Breton lagud
    cafe
    "coffee-house, restaurant," 1802, from French café "coffee, coffeehouse," from Italian caffe "coffee" (see coffee). The beverage was introduced in Venice by 1615 and in France by 1650s by merchants and travelers who had been to Turkey and Egypt. The first public European café mig
    appearance
    late 14c., "visible state or form, figure; mere show," from Anglo-French apparaunce, Old French aparance "appearance, display, pomp" (13c.), from Latin apparentia, abstract noun from aparentem, past participle of apparere "come in sight, make an appearance," especially "be eviden

    Share visage

    Advertisement
    Trending
    Dictionary entries near visage
    Advertisement