▪ I. facet, n.2
(ˈfæsɪt)
Forms: 7 fascet, faucett, 8 fasset, fosset, 8–9 facette, 8– facet.
[a. F. facette, dim. of face: see face n.]
A little face.
1. One of the sides of a body that has numerous faces; orig. one of the small cut and polished faces of a diamond or other gem, but subsequently extended to a similar face in any natural or artificial body. Cf. brilliant. Also preceded by certain defining words, as diagonal-facet, skill-facet, skew-facet, star-facet; for which see those words.
| 1625 Bacon Ess. Honour (Arb.) 69 Diamonds cut with Fascets. 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 69 Sea-greene berill into fascets cut. 1750 Jeffries Treat. Diamonds & Pearls (1751) 35 A Brilliant whose lustre is derived from the angles, or facets, of the sides only. 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. II. 157 United with antimony, it gives a brittle metal with facets. 1808 Scott Marm. iv. xi, Above its cornice, row and row Of fair hewn facets. 1835 Marryat Olla Podr. xxiii, They polish rubies; that is, without cutting them in facettes. 1853 Herschel Pop. Lect. Sc. viii. §165 (1873) The appearance of certain small obliquely posited facets on the crystal previous to polishing. 1854 Hooker Himal. Jrnls. I. xv. 344 Light reflected from..myriads of facets [of hoar⁓frost]. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts. s.v. Facetting, Facets on gold and silver are cut and polished on revolving wheels. 1909 W. M. Davis Geogr. Ess. xxvi. 746 A triangular facet on the block front. 1937 Wooldridge & Morgan Physical Basis Geogr. xvii. 257 (heading) The facets of relief in a landscape of multi-cycle character. Ibid. 258 It is the variously inclined facets of intersecting surfaces which must form the units of detailed geographical study. 1944 A. Holmes Princ. Physical Geogr. xiii. 258 Isolated pebbles or rock fragments strewn on the desert surface are bevelled on the windward side until a smooth face is cut... Two or more facets may be cut. |
| transf. and fig. 1820 M. Edgeworth Life R. Edgeworth (1821) II. 260 That facet of the mind which it was the interest or the humour of the moment to turn outward. 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 20 Aug. 625/3 Many facets of Tyrolese life. 1951 Palmer & Wells Fund. Libr. Class. ii. 31 The sum total of the divisions of each aspect we shall call a facet. |
2. Anat. a. A small flat and smooth articular surface of a bone.
| 1836 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 272/1 The atlas..is articulated with the occipital tubercle by a single concave facet. 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life Introd. 57 The ribs of the Sauria have only a single articular facet. 1881 Mivart Cat 228 On each side of this is an oval, convex, articular facet. |
b. One of the individual parts or segments (ocelli) of a compound eye.
| 1834 M{supc}Murtie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 289 Compound eyes, where the surface is divided into an infinitude of different lenses called facets. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. vi. (1873) 144 The numerous facets on the cornea of their great compound eyes form true lenses. |
3. attrib., as facet-wise. Also facet-diamond, a diamond whose surface is formed into facets; facet-doublet, a counterfeit jewel (see doublet) similarly treated; facet-flash, a flash of light from one of the facets of a gem; in quot. fig.
| 1664 Butler Hud. ii. i. 601 Grind her lips upon a mill, Until the facet doublet doth Fit their rhymes rather than her mouth. 1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1207/4 Two Diamond Rings with one Faucett Diamond..in each Ring. 1690 Songs Costume (Percy Soc.) 186 A saphire bodkin for the hair, Or sparkling facet diamond there. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Facet, Multiplying-glasses are cut in facets or facet-wise. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. i. 1361 Rather learn and love Each facet-flash of the revolving year! |
▪ II. facet, v.
(ˈfæsɪt)
Pa. tense and pple. faceted (often erron. facetted).
[f. prec. n. Cf. F. facetter.]
trans. To cut a facet or facets upon; to cover with facets. lit. and fig.
| 1870 Echo 17 Jan., The almond form [of the Sancy diamond] completely facetted over..indisputably proves that it was an Indian-cut stone. 1873 Browning Red Cott. Nt.-cap 544 The liquid name ‘Miranda’—faceted as lovelily As his own gift, the gem. 1874 Westropp Precious Stones 140 Heart-shaped Amethyst. Facetted on face and back. 1881 J. Payne Villon's Poems Introd. 84 He alone divined the hidden diamonds and rubies of picturesque expression, to be..facetted into glory and beauty by the regenerating friction of poetic employment. |