PHYSIOGNOMY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Physiognomy

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noun

Physiognomy n. (pl. physiognomies)

The art and science of discovering the predominant temper, and other characteristic qualities of the mind, by the outward appearance, especially by the features of the face.

The face or countenance, especially viewed as an indication of the temper of the mind; particular configuration, cast, or expression of countenance, as denoting character.

The art telling fortunes by inspection of the features. (Obs.)

The general appearance or aspect of a thing, without reference to its scientific characteristics; as, the physiognomy of a plant, or of a meteor.

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Etymology of 'Physiognomy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Physiognomy" Quotes from Famous Books

... Nature, many indications lead us to conclude that Weishaupt had, like Diderot and d'Holbach, no other God than Nature herself. From his doctrine would naturally follow the German ultra-Hegelianism and the system of anarchy recently developed in France, of which the physiognomy suggests a foreign origin.[515] ...

— Secret Societies And Subversive Movements • Nesta H. Webster

... was not quite safe; that there were always shepherds and flocks in the valley, and that they might be injured. So we remounted, and soon overtook H. at a fountain, sketching a pine tree of special physiognomy. ...

— Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands V2 • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... the Chelonians seem to have given origin to the birds; if, independently of several relations which we cannot disregard, I should place the head of a tortoise on the neck of certain birds, I should perceive almost no disparity in the general physiognomy of the factitious animal; and on the other side, the saurians, especially the 'planicaudes,' such as the crocodiles, seem to have given origin to ...

— Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution - His Life and Work • Alpheus Spring Packard

... very clever in the art of physiognomy to remark in his countenance the melancholy which prevails in his temperament. This sad disposition, joined to the fever which has tormented him for some time, carried some vapors to his brain, which might easily lead him to believe that he heard all he has ...

— The Phantom World - or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c. • Augustin Calmet

... nature of a people' is always of a similar shade in its vices and its virtues, in its frivolities and in its labor. 'It is this physiognomy which it is necessary to discover', and every document is good, from the hall of a casino to the church, from the foibles of a fashionable woman to the suggestions of a revolutionary leader. I am therefore quite sure that this 'American soul', the principal ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

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