Etymologically
Log in

beautiful

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word beautiful

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1443 R. Pecock, Reule of Crysten Religioun More words from the 15th century
Ultimate origin
Latin bellus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English beauty
English beautiful

Pronunciation

  • /ˈbjuːtɪ.fəl/, /ˈbjuːtɪ.fʊl/[1]
  • US: /ˈbju.tɪ.fəl/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English beauty + -ful,[2][3][4][5][6] the base being bealte, later beaute,[6][7] from Anglo-Norman beute and Old French biauté,[8][2] from Vulgar Latin *bellitās,[9][8] from Latin bellus (“fine, handsome”).[6][9] Klein calls it a hybrid of a word of French origin and native full, first used by Tyndale,[10] but the OED and Barnhart record it from about 1443.[3][6] The OED compares beauteous.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Highly pleasing to the sight: about 1443, in R. Pecock's Reule of Crysten Religioun.[3][6] Etymonline likewise dates it to the mid-15th century, and Dictionary.com gives 1520–30.[2][11]

Semantic evolution

From 1502 it was used of intellectual or moral excellence and of what is well suited to a purpose,[3] and before 1586, in Sidney's Arcadia, of what pleases the senses generally, especially hearing.[3] From 1509 it was used of a person's face and figure, and now especially of a woman.[3] Johnson (1755) simply defined it as "fair; having the qualities that constitute beauty".[12] The noun appeared in 1534, in Tyndale's Bible, as a term of endearment,[3] and in 1561 the beautiful meant beautiful things or the abstract notion of beauty;[3][4] Etymonline dates the noun only to 1756.[2] Weakened use, "very good, very pleasant", is recorded in American slang from 1855, also as an adverb,[13] and in Nottinghamshire the word was applied especially to tasty food, in Lincolnshire to anything pleasing.[14] After a noun, in house beautiful and body beautiful, it now suggests an obsessive pursuit of an ideal;[3] Etymonline traces House Beautiful to the place in Pilgrim's Progress.[2] The beautiful people, the fashionable set, is recorded by 1964 in Vogue, and was earlier the title of a 1941 play by William Saroyan.[2] The slogan pattern —— is beautiful (1969) probably follows black is beautiful,[3] and the beautiful game, football, is from a 1977 title by Pelé and R. L. Fish.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1443 – highly pleasing to the sight.[3][6]
  • 1502 – of intellectual or moral excellence.[3]
  • 1509 – of a person, the face or the figure.[3]
  • 1534 – noun, a beautiful person, as a term of endearment.[3]
  • 1561 – noun, the beautiful, that which is beautiful.[3][4] Etymonline dates this noun to 1756.[2]
  • before 1586 – pleasing to the senses generally, especially to hearing.[3]
  • 1767 – adverb, beautifully.[3]
  • 1783 – in the names of plants and animals.[3]
  • 1841 – after a noun, as in house beautiful.[3]
  • 1964 – the beautiful people, the fashionable set.[2]
  • 1969 – —— is beautiful, in slogans.[3]
  • 1977 – the beautiful game, football.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Highly pleasing to the senses, especially to sight or hearing, through harmony of form, colour or sound: a beautiful valley.[15][4][3]
  2. Of a person, especially a woman: exceptionally attractive or graceful.[3][4]
  3. Excellent intellectually or morally; satisfying to the mind: a beautiful proof.[3][5]
  4. Very good or enjoyable: We had a beautiful afternoon by the river.[15][5][3]

Noun

  1. the beautiful: that which is beautiful, or the abstract idea of beauty.[4][3][5]
  2. A beautiful person, chiefly as a term of endearment.[3][5]

Adverb

  1. (regional or nonstandard) Beautifully.[3][13]

Word family

  • beautifully
  • beautifulness
  • beautiful people

Usage notes

The comparative beautifuller and the superlative beautifullest are attested from the 16th century, but are now rare and nonstandard.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Beautiful.” Etymologically, 4 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/beautiful. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·