vizard

/ˈvɪzəd/

Etymology

An alteration of visor by confusion of the ending.

Why this word is great

VIZARD — Noun. A mask, especially one used for disguise or protection, or a visor on a helmet. The word is an alteration of *visor*, reshaped by the suffix *-ard*, lending it a touch of the archaic and the theatrical. Unlike *visor*, which narrowly denotes a protective face shield on a helmet, *vizard* carries the whisper of concealment—think of a highwayman’s black silk mask or a reveler’s carved carnival face. And where *guise* speaks of deception in the abstract, a *vizard* is a tangible thing: the owl-eyed wooden mask hiding a priest of some forgotten rite, the rusted visor clapped down on a knight’s helm before the tilt, the brittle leather scrap a plague doctor lifts to sip his bitter tea. A *vizard* is the weight of the hidden, pressing close to the skin.

name

  1. A surname.

noun

  1. A mask (cover for the face, used for disguise, protection, etc.)“[…] one Roscius Gallus the most excellent player among the Romaines brought up these vizards, which we see at this day used, partly to supply the want of players, when there were moe parts than there were persons, or that it was not thought meet to trouble and pester princes chambers with too many folkes. Now by the chaunge of a vizard one man might play the king and the carter, the old nurse and ”
  2. A visor (part of a helmet covering the face).“I walked up gravely to the window in my dusty black coat, and looking through the glass saw all the world in yellow, blue, and green, running at the ring of pleasure.—The old with broken lances, and in helmets which had lost their vizards;—the young in armour bright which shone like gold, beplumed with each gay feather of the east,—all,—all, tilting at it like fascinated knights in tournaments of ”
  3. Outward appearance; pretense.“Oh, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, And with a virtuous vizard hide foul guile!”