A New Word (PULCHRITUDE)

pulchritude • \PUHL-kruh-tood\ • noun
: physical comeliness

Example sentence:
"You must not hold my pulchritude against me, for I surely did not ask for it, and even if I had, beauty is neither a crime nor sign of doltishness," declared Laura.

Did you know?
If John Keats was right when he wrote that "a thing of beauty is a joy forever," then "pulchritude" should bring bliss for many years to come. That word has already served English handsomely for centuries; it has been used since the 1400s. It's a descendant of the Latin adjective "pulcher," which means "beautiful." "Pulcher" hasn't exactly been a wellspring of English terms, but it did give us both "pulchritude" and "pulchritudinous," an adjective meaning "attractive" or "beautiful." The verb "pulchrify" (a synonym of "beautify"), the noun "pulchritudeness" (same meaning as "pulchritude"), and the adjective "pulchrous" (meaning "fair or beautiful") are other "pulcher" offspring, but those terms have proved that, in at least some linguistic cases, beauty is fleeting.