• visage •
Pronunciation: vi-zij, rarely vi-zahj • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. The face, countenance. 2. Aspect, appearance, a look, as 'the promising visage of spring'.
Notes: Visage is more often used in reference to the physical features of the face, while countenance generally refers to the emotional expressions of the face. The adjective for this noun is visaged. Visagiste is used mostly in the UK and elsewhere in reference to a cosmetic artist.
In Play: You will hear the first meaning of today's word in expressions like this: "Marian Kine's visage was so fresh and charming that Phil Anders had to ask her out." The second, metaphorical sense will occur in such sentences as this: "The negotiations took on the visage of a fencing match."
Word History: The origin of today's Good Word is given away by its easily recognizable suffix -age. In French visage means simply "face", created from the root, vis- of Latin visus "a look, vision", from the verb videre "to see". Videre was made from the PIE word weid- "to see"; to know", which underlies Sanskrit vedah "sacred knowledge" and vidya "knowledge", Greek oida "to know", Czech vidět "to see", Russian videt' "to see", Serbian videti "to see", Polish widzieć "to see" and wiedzieć "to know", Norwegian vite "know", German wissen "to know", English wit and wise, Swedish veta "know", Welsh gwedd "appearance", Irish feic "to see", and Lithuanian veidas "face". (Now let's all welcome and thank newcomer Mike Goronsky for raising the question of the pronunciation of today's pithy Good Word in the Agora.)
