What’s My Line?
In all my reading travels, through books and reams and entire libraries, I had never seen this word or anything like it. Not even a clue as to it’s roots.
metoposcopy
\Met’-o-pos‘-co-py\, n. (Gr. ? observing the forehead; ? the forehead + ? to view: cf. F. m(’e)toposcopie.) The art of discovering the character of persons by their features, or the lines of the face.
In a previous post I had written about wrinkles, which are now expression lines if you want to be a part of the politically correct crowd. Perhaps to a metoposcopissed metoposcopist it makes more sense to call them expression lines, since they apparently study them to discover character traits. In my vast research spanning months, I found that apparently this field of study is the same as or very similar to physiognomy. Well… that certainly clears it up…
8 Comments so far
Yes I have encountered this word previously.
Frown!
Another new one on me…hardly a surprise. Just one more Winston tidbit placed neatly into the file. Some of us very expressive or overly wrinkled souls would give your every day metoposcopist a run for his money….wouldn’t you think? Thanks Winston….
Never heard the word and never study anybody’s forehead except once in awhile my own when i see a photo or mirror and there are lines where there are not supposed to be. I ask myself then what the heck brought those on, stop frowning (for the moment) load on some moisturizer and tell them to go away!
Funny, I never thought of it until I read Joy and Rain’s comments, but I’ve never known a man to worry about, or even notice wrinkles, on himself or on others. I s’pose most are too busy with important things, like football, beer, cars, etc. Not me of course! I’m deeply concerned with the state of the environment, equal rights for all, and maintaining a healthy diet regimen. Now where the hell is that vanishing cream?
Dorothy Kilgallen and Bennett Cerf agree that metoposcopy must be a close cousin to phrenology. (See John Daly for number of points received.)
Oh my, Winston. I guess there’s plenty about my character to be discovered. My friend calls mine “twinkle crinkles” because she says I got them from smiling so much. Guess they’re not all bad!
i depend on my bullshit detector more than just reading the forhead or face..hu huh…