Etymologically
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facet

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈfæs.ɪt/[1]
  • UK: /ˈfas.ɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French facette,[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] a diminutive of face (“face, side”) (see face),[3][5][9][10][11] with the suffix found in -et.[6][7][12] The French word is recorded as fasette in 1589 and, as facete, already in the 13th century, meaning a little face.[2] Etymonline dates the Old French form to the 12th century.[3] The French noun goes back through Vulgar Latin *facia to Latin faciēs.[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the small cut and polished faces of a diamond or other gem: 1622, in Gerard de Malynes's Consuetudo.[2] Barnhart dates it to 1625, in Francis Bacon's Essays,[4][10] and Johnson quoted Bacon's simile of honour reflected like diamonds cut with facets.[13]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the diamond-cutting sense is the original one.[3] It was widened to any flat face of a many-sided body,[2][6] and since 1808 it has been used figuratively of one side or aspect of something, such as a subject or a character;[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date the figurative sense to 1820.[4][3] Naturalists applied it from 1744 to each of the parts of an insect's compound eye, after French,[2] while anatomists used it from 1790 for a small smooth surface on a bone.[2] In library science, from 1944 in S. R. Ranganathan, a facet is one of several categories by which something can be classified at the same time.[2] The verb, to cut facets on, followed in 1850.[2]

Timeline

  • 1622 – one of the cut faces of a gem.[2] Barnhart dates it to 1625, in Bacon.[4]
  • 1744 – a segment of the compound eye of an insect.[2]
  • 1790 – a small smooth surface on a bone.[2]
  • 1808 – figurative, one aspect of something.[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date the sense to 1820.[4][3]
  • 1850 – verb, to cut facets on.[2]
  • 1944 – in library science, a category of classification.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. One of the small flat surfaces cut on a gem such as a diamond.[14][10][2]
  2. One side or aspect of a subject, problem or personality: Every facet of the plan was debated.[14][10][2]
  3. Any of the units that make up the compound eye of an insect or other arthropod.[14][2]
  4. (anatomy) A small smooth area on a hard surface, especially a bone.[14][2]
  5. (architecture) The raised surface between the flutes of a column.[14][10]
  6. (library science) One of several categories by which something can be classified at once.[2]

Verb

  1. To cut facets on a gem or other surface.[10][2]

Word family

  • faceted
  • multifaceted

Usage notes

The OED records an unrelated obsolete Facet (1440–75), the title of a medieval Latin manual of behaviour used in schools, from Latin facētus.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins