face

Forms

face f (plural faces)^[1] Medieval texts write face and façe, and also faz, the regular outcome of the Latin word.^[2][3]

Etymology

In Houaiss's view it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *facia, a popular form of Latin faciēs (“form, appearance; face”), and the Portuguese form probably owes something to French.^[2] Wiktionary takes it straight from the Latin word, through Old Galician-Portuguese façe and Old Galician-Portuguese faz.^[1] The older form, cited by Nascentes after Nunes, matches Spanish faz and Spanish haz, which Corominas says was the medieval pronunciation of the Spanish word.^[3][4] The learned doublet is fácies.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician face, Catalan faç, Old Occitan fatz and Sardinian fache, while Italian faccia, French face and Romanian față continue the popular form.^[5][1][6]

The Latin noun is formed from faciō (“to make, do”) with the suffix of speciēs, and so first meant “the shape given to a thing”.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria already use the word for the human face: people sol ena face non ll'ousavan mentes tẽer “did not even dare to look her in the face”, and others viron-lle mudar coor / ena façe “saw the colour change in his face”.^[8] In the plural it meant the cheeks: a father in distress en sas faces deu palmadas “slapped his own cheeks”.^[8] The same cantigas speak of the face of a die.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) translate the word only by Latin facies.^[9][10] Pereira (1697) adds superficies “surface”, and Folqman (1755) separates the cheek, the surface and the front of a thing.^[11][12] Bluteau (1712–1728) gives both “the face” and the cheek, the part of it from the eyes down to the beard.^[13] Figueiredo (1899) lists the dressed face of a stone, the plane surfaces of a solid, the side of a coin bearing the bust and the right side of a fabric.^[14]

Modern dictionaries add technical senses in geometry, botany, fencing and music, and in São Paulo the word names each side of a house according to the points of the compass.^[2][15] In linguistics it has also come to mean the public self-image that each speaker tries to keep.^[16] A medieval derivative faceira meant “dandy”; in Brazil it came to mean “coquette”.^[5]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria write face and façe for the face and, in the plural, the cheeks.^[8][2]
• 1416 – first occurrence in the CTA corpus, in the Vida de Santo Aleixo.^[17]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders face by Latin facies.^[9]
• 1697 – Pereira adds the sense “surface”.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines the cheek sense and reports a fanciful derivation from Latin faces “torches”.^[13]
• 1734 – Feijó prescribes face, not fácia.^[18]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists the senses of stonework, geometry, coins and textiles.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The face, the front of the head from the forehead to the chin: Lavou a face com água fria.^[2][19][1]
2. Each side of the face, the cheek: Tinha as faces vermelhas de frio.^[2][20][1]
3. The look or expression of the face; countenance.^[2][19]
4. presence: Retirou-se da face do rei.^[2][20]
5. The outer side of a flat object; the front of a building, fachada.^[2][21]
6. A surface: a face do lago.^[2][19]
7. (figurative) One of the aspects of a matter or of a person, a faceta.^[2][16]
8. (zoology) The front part of the head of mammals and birds.^[2][22]
9. (geometry) Each of the polygons bounding a polyhedron.^[2][22]
10. The side of a coin or medal bearing the image.^[2][16]
11. (textiles) Each side of a fabric, especially the right side.^[2][21]

Word family

• faceiro
• facear

Related words

• fácies
• faceta
• fachada
• Latin faciēs
• Galician face
• Spanish faz

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include face a face “face to face”, em face de “in front of; in view of” and fazer face a “to face up to; to meet (an expense)”.^[16][20]

Bluteau reports that Manuel de Faria derived faces “cheeks” from Latin faces “torches”, because red cheeks look like two flames.^[13] Morais (1813) records a masculine face “a veil covering the face”, which he takes from Castilian.^[23] In colloquial Portuguese Face is also a clipping of Facebook, borrowed from English and pronounced with /ej/.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. face
3. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 206
4. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. faz
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3130
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. face
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. face
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. face
10. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. face
11. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. face
12. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. face
13. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. face
14. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. face
15. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. face
16. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4133
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. face
18. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. face
19. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. face
20. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. face
21. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. face
22. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. face
23. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 142