visor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English viser, also visere and visour,^[2][3] with the ending later changed to -or,^[4][5][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman viser.^{[6][5][7][8][9]} The Anglo-Norman noun, recorded from 1260–70 and glossed "mask",^[10] corresponds to Old French visiere, modern French visière,^[6][5][9] formed from vis (“face”) and the suffix -iere.^[11][12] The Old French noun is from Latin vīsus (“sight, appearance”), a noun use of the past participle of videō (“to see”), which in post-classical times was used for the face.^[7][9] Visage is another derivative of the Old French noun.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The movable front of a helmet: about 1330, in Bevis, a text the Middle English Dictionary places perhaps about 1300.^[2] Etymonline says about 1300, Barnhart probably before 1300, and the 1989 edition of the OED gives the 14th century.^[9][4][13]

Semantic evolution

The word has meant both a part of a helmet and a mask since Middle English, and Anglo-Norman already had the sense "mask".^[13][2][10] Gower used viser only for a mask, three times,^[14] and the figurative sense of a disguise of some quality is in the 1989 edition of the OED from 1390, with the sense of an outward show hiding something else from 1532.^[13] In the late 16th and 17th centuries the word could also mean a face or outward aspect.^[5][13] Spelling followed its own course: vesour in 1459, visour in Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590), and visor in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (1599).^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it only as a mask to disfigure and disguise, noted the spellings visard, visar, visor, vizard and vizor, and preferred visor as nearest to the Latin and to visage.^[15] American English extended it to the stiff brim of a cap, from 1847 in Barnhart and 1864 in the OED and Etymonline.^[4][13][9] An eyeshade followed by 1925, and in particular a shade at the top of a windscreen.^[13][9][5] The word now also names the transparent flap on a modern helmet.^[16][5]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – viser, the movable front of a helmet.^[2]
• 14th century – a mask to conceal the face.^[13]
• 1390 – figurative, a disguise of some quality.^[13]
• 1459 – the form vesour.^[4]
• 1532 – an outward show hiding something else.^[13]
• before 1548 – verb, to disguise oneself with a visor.^[13]
• 1575 – a face or outward aspect (now obsolete).^[13]
• 1590 – the spelling visour.^[4]
• 1599 – the spelling visor.^[4]
• 1847 – the stiff brim on the front of a cap, in Francis Parkman.^[4] The 1989 edition of the OED and Etymonline date this sense to 1864.^[13][9]
• 1879 – a variety of pigeon.^[13]
• 1925 – a shade protecting the eyes, as on a windscreen.^[13][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The movable front part of a helmet, with openings for seeing and breathing, as on a suit of armour.^[16][11][13]
2. A transparent flap on a modern helmet, pulled down to protect the face.^[16][5]
3. A small movable screen that shields the eyes from glare, especially one above a car's windscreen: She lowered the visor against the evening sun.^[16][5][13]
4. The stiff peak on the front of a cap.^[16][5][13]
5. (archaic) A mask, or anything else used to disguise or conceal.^[16][11][13]
6. (obsolete) A face or countenance.^[11][5][13]

Verb

1. To cover, provide or protect with a visor.^[16][5][13]

Word family

• visored
• visorless

Related words

• vizard
• visage
• vision
• visit

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins