round-faced

The compound adjective 'round-faced' is a transparent construction from Modern English elements. The core concept originates from the Germanic root for 'round', which carries the ancient sense of a curved or circular form. This is combined with 'face', a term which entered English via French from the Latin 'facies', a word with a broad semantic range covering appearance, form, and surface. The adjectival suffix '-ed' is appended to the noun 'face', a productive pattern in English for creating descriptive terms indicating possession of a specific feature. Thus, the literal logic of "having a face that is round" maps directly and clearly onto its modern meaning describing a person's facial shape.

Structure: round (circular) + face (front of head) + ed (having the characteristic of) - round: From Old English 'rind', 'rund' (a circular object, sphere), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch 'rond' and German 'rund'. Functions as an adjective describing shape. - face: From Old French 'face', based on Latin 'facies' (form, appearance, face). Functions as a noun, the object being described. - ed: A suffix of Old English origin used to form adjectives from nouns, meaning "having; characterized by; having the qualities of".