grimace

Etymology

It is borrowed from French grimace,^[2][3][4][5] which the OED dates in French to the 14th century and calls of uncertain origin;^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 15th century.^[3] The French word is an alteration of Middle French grimache,^[6][7][4][5] itself replacing the ending of Old French grimuche.^[4][6] Most recent American dictionaries take the base as Germanic, probably Frankish *grīma (“mask”),^[6][8][7][4] comparing Old English grīma (“mask, helmet”),^[7][3] Old Saxon grīma (“mask”)^[3][4] and Old Norse gríma (“mask, cowl”),^[4][9][10] which belong with Proto-Germanic *grīmô.^[9] Etymonline and Collins link it with grim,^[3][11] and Barnhart, Dictionary.com and Klein with grime.^[4][8][12] Oxford dictionaries and Klein instead route it through Spanish: Spanish grimazo (“caricature”), from grima (“fright”),^{[5][13][14][12]} with the pejorative suffix -azo, from Latin -āceus,^[14][12][8] though Hoad and Klein take that Spanish word from the same Germanic stem.^[14][12] Weekley preferred Old High German grimmiza,^[15] and Skeat judged the origin uncertain, noting that Diez derived it from the Old Norse word for a mask.^[16] The verb is borrowed from French grimacer, or else it comes from the English noun.^[2][4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A distortion of the face that shows a feeling such as annoyance or pain: 1651, in Hobbes's Leviathan.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

French grimace also meant a wrinkle and a sham or humbug,^[12] and Skeat cites Cotgrave's gloss, "a crabd looke".^[16] Beside the twisted face of the first record, the noun meant pretence or sham from 1655,^[2] and an affected expression, or formerly any exaggerated gesture of politeness, from 1678, in Marvell.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as a distortion of the face from habit, affectation or insolence, and so still joined the senses.^[17] The senses of affectation and sham are now rare,^[2][5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged labels the affected attitude archaic.^[7] The verb came later: the OED and Barnhart first find it in 1762, in Goldsmith's Citizen of the World,^[2][4] and Etymonline in 1707.^[3] At first it could also mean to put on an affected air.^[2]

Timeline

• 1651 – noun, a distortion of the face.^[2][4]
• 1655 – figurative, affectation, pretence, sham.^[2]
• 1678 – an affected expression or gesture.^[2]
• 1687 – the use of affected looks or gestures.^[2]
• 1707 – verb, to distort the face.^[3] The OED and Barnhart date the verb to 1762.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A twisted expression of the face, whether deliberate or not, showing a feeling such as pain, disgust or annoyance: a grimace of pain as she stood up.^[7][11][2]
2. (rare) Affectation, pretence, sham.^[7][2][5]
3. (archaic) An affected expression or attitude, especially of exaggerated politeness.^[7][2]

Verb

1. To twist one's face; to make a wry face: He grimaced at the taste of the medicine.^[11][7][2]

Word family

• grimacer
• grimacingly

Related words

• grime
• grim
• begrime

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.