face

RuPaul

We’re all familiar with face. In part because we all have one. The word dates to the 1300s, and it has many senses, from a person’s face to the face of a building to facing (“confronting”) an adversary.

Face also figures into many idioms, like face-to-face, which is when you meet someone “in person” and dates back to the 1800s, or to save face, or “avoid humiliation,” based on a Chinese expression.

It’s not surprising, then, that face has many slang senses. Since the 1920–30s, face has been variously used in slang dealing with makeup and oral sex. Since at least the late 1980s, face! has been short for the dismissive exclamation in your face!, issued after a comeback or sick burn.

Since at least the early 2000s, face has been a slang verb for inhaling something quickly or greedily, such as food, alcohol, or drugs, e.g., He faced that burrito.

In the drag community, to serve or give face is to a deliver a confident, powerful look during a performance, especially one with a lot of swagger, and with makeup done just right. This expression was popularized in part by the reality TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race (first airing in 2009) and appears to originate in LGBTQ ballroom drag culture, as documented by the 1990 film, Paris is Burning.

fun fact: i used to give FACE with my lazy eye okay ?
no one could tell me anything about my “flaw” because i LOVED it !! people used to try to bully me because of it and it never worked . i wouldn’t change anything about me. and i mean that. pic.twitter.com/Tfif5Yih13

— Jarah of Sutphin, 1st of her name. (@Jarahhhh) March 7, 2019