by Kevin Burton
OK guys, Valentine’s Day is coming. This gift from me to you, for use in your valentine’s messages, comes with a warning label.
This is a list of words that mean “beautiful,” supplied by our friends at Merriam-Webster. Some of these words don’t sound very complimentary though. Wade through them and choose carefully. Your special lady will thank you:
Gorgeous – very beautiful or attractive
Most people don’t think of gorgeous as having much in common with the gorge in “that makes my gorge rise” (an idiom that means “to cause someone to feel like vomiting”), but the two may in fact be connected. It is thought that gorgeous comes from the French gorgias (“elegant”), which itself may be from that language’s gorge, a root shared with the English gorge.
Formosity – beauty or a beautiful thing
It is always good to be reminded that a word relating to beauty need not itself be beautiful, and many would agree that formosity is not a particularly attractive series of letters. This word shares a root with form, the Latin forma (meaning “form, beauty”).
Lovesome – charming, winsome, beautiful, lovely
Lovesome comes from Old English, using that language’s word for love (lufu) and its adjective suffix for –some (-sum). Make sure that you do not confuse lovesome with the distinct two-word pairing of love and some (as in ‘I’d really love some pancakes right now’).
Venust – beautiful, graceful, elegant
Venust is an archaic synonym of beautiful, and may not be readily understood by your audience; but given that it begins with the name of the Roman goddess of love (Venus), you should be able to use it anyway, and have your meaning made clear through context.
Handsome – attractive, well-proportioned, and good-looking usually in a way suggesting poise, dignity, and strength
Handsome is today used more often of men (and occasionally objects) than it is of women, although this has not always been the case; throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries it was applied in near-equal measure to both sexes. The word suggests a pleasing appearance, due proportions, and a measure of dignity and taste.
Specious – presenting a pleasing appearance : pleasing in form or look
This word should come with a warning label, for although the above definition of specious is roughly synonymous with beautiful, it is an obsolete sense, little used since the 18th century. The sense of specious that is most common today is “falsely appearing to be fair, just, or right : appearing to be true but actually false.” The reason that specious had its ‘visually pleasing’ sense prior to its ‘deceptive’ one is that the word came to English from the Latin speciosus, which could mean both “beautiful” or “plausible.”
Beauteous – Beautiful
Beauteous is the synonym of beautiful that is closest in meaning and form, so is an excellent choice if you want a word that is ‘beautiful, but just a little bit different.’ Although it is neither archaic nor obsolete, beauteous is chiefly used in literary contexts, and so will not typically be found in conversation.
Whizzer – something notable of its kind: such as an outstandingly attractive or able person
While it’s true that whizzer can also carry the meaning of “one that whizzes,” and may not be the first word you choose when looking to refer to someone or something as beautiful, it has a pleasing meaning nonetheless (and there is no rule stating that all synonyms of beautiful have to be serious words).
Pulchritudinous – having or marked by physical comeliness
Pulchritudinous, much like formosity, is a word that does not sound very much like its meaning. Pulchritudinous (and pulchritude) come from the Latin pulcher (which means “beautiful”), the same source for a number of uncommon words in English, such as pulchrify (“to beautify”), pulchritudeness (a synonym of pulchritude), and pulchrous (“fair or beautiful”).
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