facies

See also: facíes and faciès

English

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-

Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k-

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti

Proto-Italic *θakjō

Proto-Italic *fakjō

Latin faciō

Proto-Italic *-jēs

Latin -iēs

Latin faciēsbor.

English facies

Borrowed from Latin faciēs (“form, configuration, figure; face, visage, countenance”). Doublet of face.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfeɪ.ʃi.iːz/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfeɪ.ʃiˌiz/, /ˈfeɪ.ʃiz/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃiiːz, -eɪʃiːz

Noun

facies (countable and uncountable, plural facies)

1. General appearance.
   • 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 106:

     The insects of these four islands have also a common facies - facts which seem to indicate that some more extensive land has recently disappeared from the area they now occupy, and has supplied them with a few of its peculiar productions.

   • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 6:

     The Chilean Amphijubula Schust. (Schuster, 1970a) which has the facies of a small Frullania and agrees with Frullania in leaf insertion and branching, has a nontiered seta with 16 epidermal cell rows surrounding 4 inner rows.

2. (medicine) Facial features, like an expression or complexion, typical for patients having certain diseases or conditions.

   Hyponyms: masked facies, moon facies

   costive facies

3. (geology) A body of rock with specified characteristics reflecting its formation, composition, age, and fossil content.

   Hyponyms: biofacies, lithofacies, microfacies, ichnofacies, taphofacies

Derived terms

• asymmetric crying facies
• facies Hippocratica
• Williams elfin facies syndrome

References

• “facies”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “facies”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

facies

1. plural of facie

Anagrams

• Scaife

Latin

Etymology

From faciō +‎ -iēs. The term faciēs is to faciō as speciēs is to speciō, literally meaning "a make, imposed form".

(face): Compare typologically Czech tvář, Polish twarz (<< Proto-Slavic *tvarь, akin to *tvoriti). Note French faire bonne mine à mauvais jeu, Russian сде́лать лицо́ попро́ще (sdélatʹ licó popróšče).

Also compare figūra, fōrma; Proto-Slavic *obrazъ (a deverbal from *obraziti).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈfa.ki.eːs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈfaː.t͡ʃi.es]

Verb

faciēs

1. second-person singular future active indicative of faciō

Noun

faciēs f (genitive faciēī); fifth declension

1. (in general) make, form, shape, figure, configuration

   Synonyms: speciēs, frōns, fōrma, habitus

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 12.891:

     verte omnes tete in facies

     resort to every expedient

     (literally, “change yourself in every shape”)

2. (usually Classical Latin) a particular face, countenance or visage
   • c. 347 CE – 420 CE, Hieronymus, Vulgate Genesis.1.2:

     Terra autem erat inānis et vacua, et tenebrae erant super faciem abyssī: et spīritus Deī ferēbātur super aquās.

     And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.

3. (Classical Latin, figuratively) external form, look, condition, appearance

   in faciem + (genitive) ― like, in the guise of

   1. (in particular) external appearance as opposed to reality; pretence, pretext
   2. (transferred sense, poetic) look, sight, aspect

   Synonym: speciēs

4. beauty, loveliness

   Synonyms: pulchritūdō, decus, decor

Usage notes

• The word for facial expression or for face as conveying a particular expression is normally vultus.

Declension

Fifth-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	faciēs	faciēs
genitive	faciēī faciēs	faciērum
dative	faciēī	faciēbus
accusative	faciem	faciēs
ablative	faciē	faciēbus
vocative	faciēs	faciēs

Alternative forms

• facia (Late Latin)

Derived terms

• bonifaciēs
• facitergium
• superficiēs

Descendants

• Insular Romance:
  • Old Sardinian: fache
    • Sardinian: fache, facci
• Italo-Romance:
  • Sicilian: facci
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: faç
  • Old Occitan: fatz
• Ibero-Romance
  • Extremaduran: hazi
  • Mozarabic: ڢاج (fāja)
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: façe, faz
    • Galician: face
    • Portuguese: face
  • Old Spanish: faz
    • Spanish: haz, faz
• Borrowings:
  • → English: facies
  • → French: faciès
  • → Italian: facies
  • → Portuguese: fácies
  • → Spanish: facies

Reflexes of the Late variant facia:

• Balkano-Romance:
  • Aromanian: fatsã
  • Romanian: față
• Italo-Dalmatian:
  • Italian: faccia (see there for further descendants)
  • Venetan: fazza, faça, fasa (see there for further descendants)
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: face
  • Romansh: fatscha
• Gallo-Italic:
  • Emilian: fâza
  • Lombard: fassa
  • Piedmontese: fassa, fàssia
  • Romagnol: fàza
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Occitan: fàcia
  • Old French: face, fache (see there for further descendants)
• Borrowings:
  • → Albanian: faqe

Further reading

• “facies”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “facies”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• facies in Dizionario Latino, Olivetti
• "facies", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “facies”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “facies”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 3: D–F, page 355

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-

Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k-

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti

Proto-Italic *θakjō

Proto-Italic *fakjō

Latin faciō

Proto-Italic *-jēs

Latin -iēs

Latin faciēslbor.

Spanish facies

Learned borrowing from Latin faciēs. Doublet of faz and haz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaθjes/ [ˈfa.θjes] (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)
• IPA^(key): /ˈfasjes/ [ˈfa.sjes] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -aθjes (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)
• Rhymes: -asjes (Latin America, Philippines)
• Syllabification: fa‧cies

Noun

facies f (plural facies)

1. facies

Further reading

• “facies”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025