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Physiognomy is the look of a person's face as a whole — the shape, the features, the usual expression — not one small part like a nose or a smile. People use it when they talk about the kind of face someone has: a kind physiognomy, a hard physiognomy, a tired one. It is an old, rather word; most people today would just say face, looks, or features. There is a second, older use too: the idea that you can read someone's character from their face. That idea was once treated as a kind of knowledge, and it still turns up in stories and in talk about first impressions, but it is not something science stands behind. The word is almost always about people, and it sounds formal on the page.
面相、相貌（若指看臉猜個性，台灣也說「看面相」）
組成From Greek physis (nature, the look of a body) + gnōmē (a way of knowing, a judgement). English later put the learned Greek-looking spelling back in; older English had shorter spoken forms.
同家族的字
- physiqueshares Greek physis, the look or nature of a body
- physiologyshares the physio- / physis piece
- physicsshares the same physis root, though the meaning went another way
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
physiognomynoun/fɪziˈɒnəmi/
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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.
- 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.
- 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.
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The face or countenance, with respect to the temper of the mind; particular configuration, cast, or expression of countenance, as denoting character.
- Faith ſir a has an Engliſh maine, but his fiſnomie is more hotter in France then there.
- 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.”
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The art of telling fortunes by inspection of the features.
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The general appearance or aspect of a thing, without reference to its scientific characteristics.
- the physiognomy of a plant; of a meteor
- 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 [...]
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。