face [ME] The word face, from Latin facies ‘form, appearance, face’, is used in many expressions. To fly in the face of, meaning ‘to do the opposite of’, is recorded from the 16th century. It is taken literally from the notion of a dog attacking someone by springing directly at them. To lose face and save face are direct translations of Chinese phrases. The 16th-century dramatist Christopher Marlowe coined the phrase the face that launched a thousand ships to describe the great beauty of Helen, whose abduction by Paris caused the Trojan War. Facet [E17th] is literally a ‘little face’ from French facette.