Facewear #1
Last week’s post took a look at the etymologies of
headwear, so this week we’ll move south a tiny bit to take a look at three things
worn on the face.
Lately, the veil has received a lot of
attention. The noun veil came into English in the late 1300s from the Anglo-French
word veil,
which meant both head-covering & sail. This came from the Latin velum,
sail, curtain or covering (which,
intriguingly is not related to the English word vellum).
Both mask & mascara have their roots in the Middle French
word masque,
a covering to hide or guard the face.
This came from a Middle Latin word, masca, meaning specter or nightmare. Nobody’s certain where the Middle Latin came
from, but it may have its roots in the Arabic word maskhara, buffoon or mockery, or possibly from
Catalan, maskarar to blacken the face. It may even have come from the Old Occitan word masco, which means both
witch & dark cloud before the rain comes.
Grin showed up in Old English as grennian,
to show the teeth in pain or anger.
Many Germanic languages had/have related roots: Dutch, grienan, to whine; Old Norse, grenja, to howl; German, greinen, to cry. It wasn’t until
the late 1500s that the word grin began to be the sort of thing
one might want to see on a friend.
Dear followers, please contribute to next week’s post by
using the comments section to suggest other items, treatments or expressions that
might be worn on a face.