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physiognomy

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Inherited from Middle English phisonomie, from Anglo-Norman phisenomie, Middle French phisonomie et al., ultimately from Late Latin physiognomia, from Ancient Greek φυσιογνωμία (phusiognōmía, “physiology”), from φύσις (phúsis, “physique, appearance”) + γνώμη (gnṓmē, “means of knowing”). Middle English phisonomie would regularly develop into *physnomy /ˈfɪznəmi/ (forms of this type are common in Early Modern English, such as fisnomie in All's Well that Ends Well); the modern spelling and pronunciation are due to learned influence.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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physiognomy (countable and uncountable, plural physiognomies)

  1. The art or pseudoscience of deducing the predominant temper and other characteristic qualities of the mind from the outward appearance, especially from the features of the face.
    • 2016, Brendan Dooley, Angelica's Book and the World of Reading in Late Renaissance Italy:
      Known still less than Della Porta is the figure of Camillo Baldi, an early-seventeenth-century Bolognese physician and university professor who advanced the discussion from the study of physiognomy and skull sizes to the study of characteriology based on writing. I am still not sure what to make of this treatise on onychomancy, that is, divining by observing the fingernails, except that he accounted for the practice as an example of the acute application of observational technique to the signs and symbols left by intelligent nature for humans to decipher in view of some benefit.
    • 2022 May 20, Trenton W. Ford, “Is your face gay? Conservative? Criminal? AI researchers are asking the wrong questions”, in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists‎[1]:
      During a period of peak popularity in the 19th Century, the field of physiognomy became more sinister and racist than its quirky manifestation during the time of ancient Greeks.
  2. The face or countenance, with respect to the temper of the mind; particular configuration, cast, or expression of countenance, as denoting character.
    • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v], page 251, column 2:
      Faith ſir a has an Engliſh maine, but his fiſnomie is more hotter in France then there.
    • 1879, A. de Quatrefages, “Chapter XXII. Formation of Human Races under the Sole Influence of Conditions of Life and Heredity”, in The Human Species. Book VII: Primitive Man — Formation of the Human Races.‎[2], page 255:
      The Negro transported into the same countries has also undergone remarkable changes. His colour has paled, his features have improved, and his physiognomy is altered. “In the space of 150 years,” says M. Elisée Reclus, “they have passed a good fourth of the distance which separates them from the whites, as far as external appearance goes.”
  3. The art of telling fortunes by inspection of the features.
  4. The general appearance or aspect of a thing, without reference to its scientific characteristics.
    the physiognomy of a plant; of a meteor
    • 1913, Fr. Crastre, translated by Frederic Taber Cooper, Rosa Bonheur: Masterpieces in Color‎[3], New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company:
      According to artists, the lion is the most difficult of all animals to paint, on account of the prodigious mobility of his physiognomy. Rosa Bonheur was able, thanks to her inimitable art, to catch and reproduce the fugitive facial expressions of the kingly beast [...]

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Translations

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