beauty

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English

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Etymology

From Middle English bewty, bewte, beaute, bealte, from Anglo-Norman and Old French beauté (early Old French spelling biauté), from Vulgar Latin *bellitātem (“beauty”), from Latin bellus (“beautiful, fair”); see beau. In this sense, mostly displaced native Old English fæġernes, whence Modern English fairness.

Pronunciation

Noun

beauty (countable and uncountable, plural beauties)

  1. (uncountable) The quality of being (especially visually) attractive, pleasing, fine or good-looking; comeliness.
    • 1818, John Keats, “Book I”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: T Miller,  for Taylor and Hessey, , →OCLC, page 3, lines 1–5:
      A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness; but still will keep / A bower quiet for us, and a sleep / Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
      ‘Say, hast thou seen enough!’ ‘I have looked on beauty, and I am blinded,’ I said hoarsely, lifting my hand to cover up my eyes.
    • 1900, Charles W Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company , →OCLC:
      Warwick's first glance had revealed the fact that the young woman was strikingly handsome, with a stately beauty seldom encountered.
    • 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 152:
      "The aviators didn't get him," Denham replied slowly. "What?" "It was Beauty. As always Beauty killed the Beast."
    • 1988, "… beauty and recollection, like danger, glamour, greed, hunger- everything but disappointment and desire- were concepts belonging to other people.” -Second Son, Robert Ferro
  3. Someone who is beautiful.
    Brigitte Bardot was a renowned beauty.
    • 2004 April 13, Nick Paton Walsh, “Ample Alyona shakes up Russian pageant”, in The Guardian‎:
      The website calls a vote for Alyona a vote against "beauties who do not look natural and who cannot be distinguished from each other" and rails against the "imposed standards" of 90-60-90 vital statistics, and "cigarettes with out nicotine and coffee without caffeine".
  4. (in the plural) Those aspects or elements that make someone or something beautiful.
    • 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iii:
      There the roſy-finger'd Spring, by the liquid mirror of a cryſtalline pool, was attiring her fair daughters in ſeven-fold ornaments, while the love-whiſpering breezes ſtole kiſſes as they paſſed, and fanned their glowing beauties.
  5. Something that is particularly good or pleasing.
    What a goal! That was a real beauty!
  6. An excellent or egregious example of something.
    He got into a fight and ended up with two black eyes – two real beauties!
  7. (with the definite article) The excellence or genius of a scheme or decision.
    The beauty of the deal is it costs nothing!
  8. (physics, obsolete) A beauty quark (now called bottom quark).
  9. Beauty treatment; cosmetology.
    a hair and beauty salon
    • 2013, Bethany Rooney, Mary Lou Belli, Directors Tell the Story, page 184:
      When the beauty team departs the set, the AD will say, “Let’s go on a bell.” A bell sounds throughout the stage, and […]
  10. (obsolete) Prevailing style or taste; rage; fashion.
    • 1653, Jeremy Taylor, “Twenty-five Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Winter Half-year, : Sermon XVIII. Part II.”, in Reginald Heber, editor, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D. , volume V, London: Ogle, Duncan, and Co. ; and Richard Priestley, , published 1822, →OCLC, page 277:
      Menander in the comedy brings in a man turning his wife from his house, because she stained her hair yellow, which was then the beauty.
  11. (archaic, in the plural) Beautiful passages or extracts of poetry.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Collocations

Collocations
  • Adjectives often applied to "beauty": natural, great, real, physical, exotic, inner, spiritual, strange, divine, visual, heavenly, intellectual, facial, attractive, sensuous, sensual, seductive, musical, austere, alluring, mathematical, geometric, astounding, bodily, pictorial.

Descendants

  • → Cebuano: byuti

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

Interjection

beauty

  1. (Canada) Thanks!
  2. (Canada) Cool!
    It's the long weekend. Beauty!

Adjective

beauty (comparative more beauty, superlative most beauty)

  1. (Canada) Of high quality, well done.
    He made a beauty pass through the neutral zone.

Verb

beauty (third-person singular simple present beauties, present participle beautying, simple past and past participle beautied)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To make beautiful.

Further reading

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English beauty.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈbjuː.ti/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: beau‧ty

Noun

beauty f (plural beauty's, diminutive beauty'tje n)

  1. a beauty, looker, beautiful person
  2. a beautiful other creature or thing
    Die prachtige hengst is al net zo'n beauty als z'n ruiter
    That gorgeous stallion is as much of a beauty as his rider
  3. human beauty, as the object or goal of cosmetics etc.

Synonyms

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia