facie

From face +‎ -ie.

facie (plural facies)

1. (rare) Diminutive of face.
   • 1848, Robert Nicol, “A Mother’s Song”, in Poems and Songs, Glasgow: S. & T. Dunn, , page 35:

     Lovely is thy little facie, / Wi’ its locks o’ goud / Calmly couched roun’ thy wee haffets, / Like some simmer cloud.

   • 1893, “Names of People in Fiction”, in The Halcyon, ’94, The Junior Class of Swarthmore College, page 123:

     Willie Whiskers.—A character in one of the “Mother Goose” rhymes, which is as follows: “Willie Whiskers had to stay / Near his mamma all the day, / For fear he’d fall down in the dirt / And get his little facie hurt.”

   • 1912 December 30, Dorothy Dix [pseudonym; Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer], “Dorothy Dix Writes On Greetings”, in The Huntsville Daily Times, volume 3, number 279, Huntsville, Ala., page 1, columns 6–7:

     Suppose when a man comes home he look sfor little facies against the window pane, watching for papa.

   • 1918, Ray C Beery, Practical Child Training. Book IV. Easy Lessons for Teaching Morality., New York, N.Y.: Parents Association, Inc. , page 157:

     But never allow sentimentality. “Little Birdie lets his mother wash his dear, little facie,” simpers the foolish mother. Is it to be wondered at that Algie says he saw “Mother Birdie” spanking her nestling? This is an utterly wrong way to talk.

   • 1935 February 2, Elizabeth Hart, “Teddy Is Only a Parrot, But He Can Sing Songs, Quote Poetry, Count to 10: Mrs. Stanton’s Rare Bird Shows Ability to Think”, in Mason City Globe-Gazette, page seven, column 3:

     “Oh, you little sweetheart! Come and get your little facie washed. Bobby, want your little facie washed? Do you? Do you?” he asks Bobby when their cages are being cleaned or whenever he thinks Bobby’s face is dirty.

   • 1943, Mary Britton Miller, In the Days of Thy Youth, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 180:

     “Oh, I know a girl and her name is Gracie, / She has the prettiest little facie,” he sang and his voice climbed up to a higher pitch of happiness and floated out of the open windows into the elm boughs, […]

   • 1997 April 17, Joyce Lowe, “Sedley”, in The Tidewater News, 91st year, number 62, Franklin, Va., page B3, column 1:

     Pansies are still poking their little facies around every mailbox and birdbath forsythia is blooming, too!

From Latin faciēs.

facie (plural facies)

1. face

faciē

1. ablative singular of faciēs