life mask
1
8.1
- noun
- /laɪf mæsk/
- Specialized
:
máscara de vida
- The museum holds a famous life mask of Abraham Lincoln, made in the 1800s.
Examples
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What's a life mask?
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On the wall, plaster life masks.
Fiction book (1995) -
They're life masks.
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Artists often create a life mask to capture the unique features of their subjects.
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A detailed life mask can reveal much about the facial characteristics of a person.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'mask' (a face covering or cast) combined with 'life' signals that the mask is of a living person. A B1 learner who knows both words would reasonably infer it is a mask made from a living person's face (contrastive with a 'death mask'), so the sense is immediately derivable.
Etymology
The noun life mask comes from an art practice where artists put wet plaster or clay on a person's face while they are alive to make a mold, so the result is a true mask of their life. That's why life mask means a cast taken from a living person's face, used to record their real look for sculpture and history.