Word of the Week

pulchritudinous, adjective: ‘beautiful; physical comeliness’. /ˌpʌlkrɪˈtʃuːdɪnəs/

Example: ‘He gazed admirably at the pulchritudinous brunette.’

Origin: Middle English; Latin pulchritūdō “beauty” (from Latin adjective pulchr-, pulcher “beautiful”) + adjectival suffix -ous “full of”; the verb pulchrify “beautify”, the noun pulchritude “beauty”, and the adjective pulchrous “fair or beautiful” are other pulcher offspring, however, fleeting ones (i.e., they are archaic and not used frequently in Present-Day English).

This one’s a weird one as it sounds more disgusting than enchanting– don’t you think?! Historically, we have been using pulchritude to refer to beauty since the 15th century, however, pulchritudinous is a more recent addition to our language; its use dates to the early 18th century and it only began to be used to specifically refer to people’s beauty in the middle of the 19th.