visage

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English visage, also visaige and fisage,^[2] borrowed from Old French visage, also visaige, meaning face, countenance or portrait,^[3][4][5][2] formed from vis (“face, appearance”) and the suffix -age.^[5][6][7][8] The French noun is from Latin vīsus (“sight, a look, appearance”), which in Romance came to mean face,^[6][9][4] from the past participle of videō (“to see”),^[10][5][7] from Proto-Indo-European *weid- (“to see”).^[4][10] The Middle English Dictionary compares Medieval Latin vīsāgium.^[2] The same formation gave Spanish visaje, Portuguese visagem and Italian visaggio.^[3][11] The noun vis survives in vis-à-vis.^[11][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The face, the front part of a person's head: 1303, in R. Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[3] Barnhart dates it probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder,^[5] and Etymonline to about 1300.^[4] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary records the word from the early 14th century, meaning face or countenance.^[12]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word was used both for the face as part of the body and for the face as showing feeling or temperament, the countenance (1338).^[3][4] Chaucer used it 44 times and Gower 41.^[13] In the late 14th century it also came to mean an assumed appearance, a show or pretence (1390–1684), and an image or portrait (before 1400 to 1596);^[3][9][4] the first gave the Middle English visager, a shameless liar who shows a false face.^[4] It was also used of the face of the sun or moon (1390) and for appearance or aspect in general (1422).^[3][9] Chaucer had a verb visage, to face or confront, which lasted only into the 16th century.^[3] By Johnson's time the word was rarely used without some idea of dislike or horror,^[14] and modern dictionaries call it chiefly literary.^[15][9]

Timeline

• 1303 – the face of a person.^[3]
• 1338 – the face as expressing feeling; countenance.^[3]
• c. 1374 – figurative uses, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.^[3]
• c. 1386 – to make good visage, to look cheerful or composed (obsolete by 1525).^[3]
• 1390 – an assumed appearance, a pretence (obsolete by 1684); the face of the sun or moon.^[3]
• before 1400 – an image or likeness, a portrait (obsolete by 1596).^[3]
• 1422 – appearance or aspect.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly literary) The face of a person, sometimes of an animal: the stern visage of the old judge.^[7][15][9]
2. The face as showing feeling or character; countenance or expression: She put on a calm visage for the visitors.^[7][9][3]
3. Appearance or aspect: the gloomy visage of the factory town.^[15][7][9]
4. The face or visible side of the sun or moon.^[3][9]
5. (obsolete, 1390–1684) An assumed appearance; a pretence or show.^[3][9]
6. (obsolete, before 1400–1596) An image or likeness; a portrait.^[3][9]

Word family

• visaged

Related words

• envisage
• evidence
• vision
• visionary
• visual
• visualization
• visualize
• visually
• vis-à-vis
• visor
• wit

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins