facial

Forms

facial (feminine faciale, masculine plural faciaux, feminine plural faciales)^[1]

Etymology

The TLFi derives it from Latin faciēs (“face, appearance”), from its stem, with the suffix -al, and the Grand Robert and GLLF also call it a learned derivative of the Latin noun.^[2][3][4] The Petit Robert instead takes it from Medieval Latin facialis, and Wiktionary from Latin faciālis.^[5][1] It is related to face.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1545, in Jean Bouchet's Epîtres morales et familières du Traverseur, meaning “of the face, of appearance”, and it stayed rare until the 19th century.^[2][4][3] The DMF has an older example, beaulté facialle “beauty of the face”, said of God, in a translation of Cicero of about 1500.^[6]

Semantic evolution

After its 16th-century uses the word was hardly used until it was taken up again around 1800 (Bonald, 1800).^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg date it to 1753, with a first isolated use in 1551.^[7] In the 19th century it became chiefly a term of anatomy, for whatever belongs to the face (1811, Mozin), with angle facial recorded by Boiste in 1823.^[4] Littré also gives the theological vision faciale, the beatific vision.^[8]

In the 20th century it took the sense of the value printed on a coin or stamp, valeur faciale (1948, Larousse).^[4][2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – Beaulté facialle appears in a translation of Cicero.^[6]
• 1545 – Jean Bouchet uses facial for “of the face, of appearance”.^[2][4]
• 1800 – The word reappears in Bonald.^[2]
• 1811 – Mozin records the anatomical sense “of the face”.^[4]
• 1823 – Boiste records angle facial.^[4]
• 1948 – Larousse records the sense of valeur faciale.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to the face, facial: nerf facial, paralysie faciale.^[2][5]
2. Angle facial: an anthropometric angle formed by a line from the incisors to the forehead and a line from the incisors to the ear.^[5][4]
3. Valeur faciale: the face value printed on a stamp or stated on a coin.^[5][2]
4. (theology, dated) Vision faciale: the beatific vision.^[8]

Related words

• face
• faciès
• Latin faciēs

Usage notes

The masculine plural is faciaux; the Petit Robert also records facials.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette