paniym, “face,” strong’s H6440

First occurrence

Now the earth was unformed and void,  and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. Gen 1:2

The primitive root

Strong’s H6440, paniym, a concrete noun meaning, “face;” from Strong’s H6437 פנה panah, a primitive root meaning, “to turn oneself,” that is, to turn the face toward. The ancient pictographs are pey + nun + hey.

pey פ, ף = the mouth, thus open, blow, scatter, edge
nun נ, ן = the seed, thus continue, heir, son
hey ה = man with upraised arms, thus look, reveal, wonder, worship, breath

The story is to open (pey) the seed (nun), meaning the root is going down; so the face bowed down (pey + nun) in worship (hey). Dr. Benner in the Ancient Hebrew Lexicon writes of the meaning:

The face, also the presence of one through the sense of being in the face of.

Thus a man turning his face to YHVH is to seek Him or to worship Him; and YHVH turning His face to man is to cause His presence to descend to him and receive his worship.

THE ANCIENT HEBREW LEXICON | INDEX OF HEBREW ROOTS