formosity

From Late Middle English formosite, formosyte, from Old French formosité, from Latin fōrmōsitās (“beauty”). Cognate to French formosité, Scots formosite.

formosity (uncountable)

1. (dated) Beauty.
   • 1602, John Davies [i.e., John Davies of Hereford], Mirum in modum. A Glimpſe of Gods Glorie and the Soules Shape, London:   for VVilliam Aspley, page 38:

     In vaine therefore it is to beate our braines,
     To frame that Forme, that fram'd all Formes that are,
     And yet himſelfe a formeleſſe Forme remaines,
     That in Formoſity is past compare,
     His glory is ſo great, his grace ſo rare!

   • 1620, William Basse, A Helpe to Discovrse. Or a Miſcelany of Merriment, London:   N. O. for Leonard Becker, page 9:

     A. The Schoolemen affirme; God for his exceeding formoſity and beauty,Sinne for the exceeding deformitie and loathſomneſſe , the firſt matter for the exceeding informitie and inexiſtency.

   • 1629, Theophilus Taylor, The Mappe of Moſes, or, a Gvide for Governovrs, London:   Thomas Harper, page 3:

     4 Louingly alike affianced and eſpouſed: Moſes married Zipporah the daughter of Iethro the Ethiopian,and therefore blacke, yet fruitfull, for ſhe bare vnto Moſes two ſons, Gerſhon and Eleaſer : ſo Chriſt hath affianced himſelfe to the Church; who if ſhe want externall formoſity, yet not fecundity, for ſhe bringeth forth many children vnto God.

   • 1647, Robert Baron, Εροτεπαιγνnοn of the Cyprian Academy, London:   W. W., page 8:

     […] he left not many trees behind him, before he diſcovered mounted upon a black Palfrey a Damſell of exquiſite formoſity, urged with ſorrow making towards him : […]

   • 1993, Frederick Rolfe, chapter XIX, in The Desire & Pursuit of the Whole, Quartet Books, page 200:

     His own education was ordinary, his breeding provincially constricted: but he had (with singular personal formosity) an extraordinary faculty of appreciation and an inchanting sense of obligation.