Aquiline nose

A hooknose (also called an aquiline nose or Roman nose) is a nose that is curved or hooked. The word aquiline comes from the Latin word aquilinus ("eagle-like"), a reference to the curved beak of an eagle.

The hooknose snake is distinguished, for example, by its particular distinct upturned snout (cf. hognose snake).

Some people with extremely hooked noses choose to reduce the hook with surgery.

Hooknoses in art

Buddharupa, the Sanskrit term used in Buddhism for statues or models of the Buddha. Despite cultural and regional differences in the interpretations of texts about the life of the Buddha, there are some general guidelines to the attributes of a Buddharupa. One of these is that the Buddha have a long, aquiline nose.

Hooknoses in history

Throughout history, aquiline noses have been considered the particular feature of certain ethnic groups. However, although variation in nose size and curvature can exist, aquiline noses appear in all ethnic groups rather than just a few, clearly demarcated ones and statistical data in anthropometrics are somehow forbidden.

Some scientists theorized that noses are divided into aquiline, straight, flat, hooked, and Semitic noses.[1]

In Crania Americana Samuel George Morton (1799-1851) had divided humankind primarily into four races, each distinguished by certain physical characteristics. Of Native Americans, he wrote that they were "marked by a brown complexion; long, black, lank hair; and deficient beard. The eyes are black and deep set, the brow low, the cheekbones high, the nose large and aquiline, the mouth large, and the lips tumid [swollen] and compressed." Other ethnic groups said to have aquiline noses were the Shagia (Africa), the Abipones (South America), and the Kabbabish (Africa).

People with hooknoses

Fictional people with hooknoses