This week’s theme
Words formed by clipping

This week’s words
rad
phiz
pleb
divvy
phenom

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(fiz)

MEANING:

noun: Face; facial expression.

ETYMOLOGY:

A shortening/respelling of physiognomy (face, expression), via French and Latin from Greek physiognomonia. Ultimately from the Indo-European root gno- (to know), which also gave us know, can, notorious, notice, connoisseur, recognize, diagnosis, ignore, annotate, noble, narrate, anagnorisis (the moment of recognition), gnomon (the raised arm of a sundial), gnomic (puzzling), and agnostic. Earliest documented use: 1687.

USAGE:

“Elvira, no great beauty, did possess a somewhat long and equine phiz -- although it was cruel of Luperini to mention it.”
Paul Di Filippo; Monarch of the Feast; Analog Science Fiction & Fact (New York); Jul/Aug 2019.

See more usage examples of phiz in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: