faccia

Forms

faccia f (plural facce, diminutive faccétta or faccìna or faccìno m, augmentative faccióna or (more common) faccióne m, pejorative facciàccia, augmentative-endearing facciòtta)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *facia, the spoken Latin form that took the place of classical Latin faciēs (“shape, appearance; face”).^[2][3][4][5] A form Late Latin facia is attested in Vergilius around the 7th century.^[1] The doubled ⟨cc⟩ is the normal Tuscan outcome of Latin /kj/.^[5]

The same word is French face, Occitan fasa and Romanian față; Spanish hacia (“towards”) comes from the Old Spanish phrase for “facing”.^[3] The classical form survives in Spanish haz, Catalan fas and Portuguese face (“cheek”).^[6]

The Latin noun is derived from faciō (“to make, shape”), as the ancients already saw: its first sense was “shape, form”.^[3][7][8] It is formed like speciēs beside speciō.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Venetian pact with Aleppo of 1207–1208.^[9] DELI's first record of the sense “face” is in Leonardo del Guallacca in the 13th century; the sense “page of a book” is already in a Pistoian account book of the first half of the 13th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used faccia for the whole bodily form and appearance, for an expression that shows an attitude, and figuratively for boldness and impudence, as well as for a particular person.^[9] DELI dates “aspect, figure” to Dante (1304–1308), the outer surface of a body to Bono Giamboni (before 1292), and the face of a polyhedron to the translation of Palladius (about 1340).^[2]

For a page Tommaseo noted in 1830 that writers had come to say pagina, but spoken Tuscan always said faccia.^[2] Many phrases rest on the sense “courage, cheek”: avere la faccia di “to have the nerve to”, faccia tosta “brazen person”.^[4][7] Faccia a faccia is a calque, through Latin and Greek, of a Hebrew expression.^[2] DELI doubts that perdere la faccia and salvare la faccia are calques of English lose face and save face, as Klajn held, and notes that faccia feroce is Neapolitan.^[2]

In the sense “person, fellow”, recorded before 1494, the word passed into Austrian German as Fazi, a prisoner given particular duties.^[10]

Timeline

• 1207–1208 – A Venetian pact with Aleppo has the word.^[9]
• First half of the 13th century – A Pistoian account book uses faccia for a page.^[2]
• 13th century – Leonardo del Guallacca uses it for the face.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for the outer surface of a body.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for “aspect, figure”.^[2]
• c. 1340 – The translation of Palladius uses it for the face of a solid.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Face: the front of the head from forehead to chin.^[4][7][1]
2. The features of a face; by extension, a person: una faccia nuova, a newcomer.^[4][7]
3. Expression, look: fare la faccia scura.^[4][7][1]
4. (figurative) Courage, nerve, impudence: avere la faccia di “to have the nerve to”.^[4][7]
5. The appearance of a person or thing: cambiare faccia, to change completely.^[4][1]
6. A side or surface of an object, such as either side of a coin;^[4][1] (geometry) a face of a polyhedron.^[4][1]
7. (dated) A page of a book.^[2][11]

Word family

• faccetta
• facciale
• facciata
• facciola
• sfaccettare
• sfaccettatura
• affacciare
• interfaccia
• rinfacciare
• sfacciato
• sfacciataggine

Related words

• facciavista
• faccina
• voltafaccia
• fare
• superficie
• Latin facies

Usage notes

Common phrases are faccia a faccia “face to face”, in faccia “to one's face”, di faccia “opposite”, and colloquial alla faccia! “wow!” and alla faccia di “in spite of”.^[7][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 415