Whadd’ya Call That Facial Expression?
There’s a facial expression I make a couple times a month and I don’t know the name for it. The funny thing is that I almost exclusively make this expression at the same time someone is making it towards me … and it’s always between strangers.
The expression is the one you make when you and a stranger make inadvertant eye contact. You purse your lips and for just a couple of seconds pull the corners of your lips up and then return them to a flat position all the while keeping your eyes expressionless. It’s like saying offering the most passive of “hello” or saying “I have nothing to say and no intentions … I’m moving along now, we’ll never see each other again.”
It’s funny how often the expression is made in tandem, whoever receives it often gives it in response so as to confirm I too have nothing to say and no negative intentions.
It’s also funny that we don’t have a word for this in English. Maybe it should be called a pursed smile?
