Akademik

n.

The act of bringing one's palm to one's face to indicate embarrassment, exasperation, or despair.

—v.

For the previous 24 hours Deena Pantalone had been the target of a vicious online smear campaign among the city's fashion community — vilified for telling a Toronto Life reporter the candy-red cocktail dress she was wearing at last week's Butterfly Ball was vintage, when in fact it had been created by a local designer. ... Others saw the humour in the gaffe. "Oh the facepalms," said Shannon.

—David Graham, " The embarrassing case of the little red dress: http://www.thestar.com/article/642318," The Toronto Star, May 29, 2009

Surrounded by mini-skirted dancers and wearing bad suits, the Grimes boys performed literal interpretations of the lyrics, just as Pan's People used to do decades ago on Top of the Pops. It was funny, sweet and the ultimate "facepalm" experience, and they received the biggest share of the public vote on the night.

—Sinéad Gleeson, " The public's guilty pleasure: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2009/1031/1224257742685.html," Irish Times, October 31, 2009

<facepalm>doh!</facepalm>

—noaustin, " Buat yg suka komik Conan, Kindaichi, Harlem Beat, en sylphid: http://forum.kafegaul.com/showthread.php?t=27905," Forum KG, January 28, 2001

One of my favorite words is a close relative of this one: "facedesk."

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=facedesk: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=facedeskIts amusing seeing 'net vocabulary filtering down into the printed press.

Does this mean putting one's hand over one's mouth? I call that simply covering teeth/ tongue. The palm isn't vital -- could be just ends of fingers, and whole face isn't involved -- just the mouth. It is primarily a female action.