The compound "stone-faced" is a relatively modern English formation, drawing on two ancient roots to create a vivid metaphorical description. The first element, "stone," originates from the Proto-Germanic stainaz, conveying the enduring concept of hard, inorganic rock. The second element, "face," traces back to the Latin faciēs, meaning "form" or "appearance," which entered English via Old French. When combined, the literal meaning "having a face like stone" logically evolved into the modern abstract sense of being impassive, unyielding, and showing no emotion, as stone is proverbially hard and expressionless. This compound exemplifies the Germanic tendency to create descriptive adjectives by directly combining a concrete noun with a bodily feature.

Structure: stone (noun) + faced (adjective) - stone: From Old English stān, meaning "rock, stone." In this compound, it functions as a noun used attributively to describe a quality (like stone). - faced: From the noun face (from Old French face, ultimately from Latin faciēs "form, appearance") combined with the adjectival suffix -ed, meaning "having a face of a specified kind."