The front face or outside appearance of a building, or a false or deceptive outward appearance that hides something less pleasant underneath.
From French façade, from Italian facciata, derived from Latin facies meaning 'face.' The word originally referred strictly to the architectural front of buildings but evolved metaphorically to mean any misleading outward appearance.
Façade perfectly captures how humans present themselves differently to the world—the French understood this so well they named it after buildings, and we still use it today when someone is 'putting on a facade' to hide their true feelings.
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