the.com/smile
the universal hack that loosens strangers, defies language, and quietly rearranges your own brain chemistry.
means To curve the corners of your mouth upward as an expression of pleasure, friendliness, or amusement.
from From Middle English smilen, which surfaced in English around the 13th century and likely arrived from a Scandinavian source — compare Swedish smila and Danish smile. It belongs to a wide Germanic family tied to a root meaning 'to laugh' or 'to be amazed,' and it's a distant cousin of the older English smerian (to laugh at) and even of Latin mirari, 'to wonder at' — the same root that gives us 'miracle' and 'admire.' Before 'smile' settled in, English mostly used 'smirk,' which once simply meant to smile and only later soured into something sly.
- forced works
- Fake smiling can still trick the brain happier.
- baby evidence
- Babies smile in the womb before birth.
- infrared blind
- Blind athletes smile despite never seeing one.
- muscle math
- Genuine smiles crinkle eyes; fake ones don't.
- contagion
- Frowning back at a smile is physically hard.
mona lisa's smile — leonardo da vinci's 1503 portrait, most analyzed facial expression in art history
joey tribbiani smile — friends character portrayed by matt leblanc, signature smirk from 1994-2004
denzel washington smile — actor's distinctive megawatt grin, hollywood trademark since the 1980s