Meaning of physnomy | Babel Free

Definitions

Obsolete spelling of physiognomy.

alt-of, countable, obsolete, uncountable

Examples

“Furthermore, it was a scientia that appealed to the innate physiognomical consciousness of the human mind⟳ — a natural faculty of visual literacy referred to in the first edition of Cole’s English dictionary (1696) as ‘physnomy’: ‘Physiognomy: a discovering of men’s natures by their looks, also contracted to Physnomy’. A minor character in Andromana; or, The Merchant’s Wife (1660), an obscure Restoration play⟳ by an unknown author chosen at random, provides an indication of this visual faculty of ‘physnomy’ ‘in action’. At point⟳, when brought face-to-face with a rival, one character exclaims, ‘An honest fellow call⟳ you him? If he have⟳ not rogue writ in great letters in’s face⟳, I have⟳ no physnomy.’ An indication of how ‘books on physiognomy’ tried to identify⟳, indeed fuse, themselves with this innate faculty in the mind⟳ can be seen in one late fifteenth-century ‘book on physiognomy’ which claimed to contain⟳ the mystical wisdom of an illiterate shepherd: ‘Phyzonomy . . . ys oon scyens that shyppars kennys for to wnderstod the inclynacyon naturel good ore wyl of men & wemen & by sum syngys oonly in them oon for to be hold⟳’. In both these aforementioned cases, the term ‘physnomy’ or ‘phyzonomy’ should be read⟳ as referring, not to the external signs, but to the internal, physiognomical instinct (‘fisnomy’).”

CEFR level