the.com/facepaint
a temporary identity you can wear, smudge, and wash off before dinner.
means colored cosmetic applied to the skin of the face, usually for performance, celebration, or disguise, and meant to be washed off afterward.
from A transparent compound of "face" and "paint." "Face" comes through Old French from Latin "facies" (form, appearance, the front of the head). "Paint" descends from Old French "peint," past participle of "peindre," from Latin "pingere," to paint or depict — a cousin of "picture" and "pigment." Painting the face for ritual, war, and theater is ancient and worldwide, but the tidy English noun "facepaint" is a much later, plain-spoken pairing of the two everyday words.
- ancient roots
- Used in rituals over 100,000 years ago
- war origins
- Camouflage paint dulls skin to hide soldiers
- team unity
- Sports fans wear it to vanish into the crowd
- safety check
- Many cheap versions hide banned heavy metals
- clown code
- Designs once registered on painted eggs
kiss — rock band famous for elaborate black and white face makeup since 1973
insane clown posse — hip hop duo wearing black and white face paint since 1992
maori ta moko — traditional face tattooing of new zealand indigenous people, ceremonial and genealogical