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Tanit Posted 17 years ago
Vocabulary

"Misunderstood beauty"?

Hi all,

I heard somebody (a native speaker of English from Ireland) say "misunderstood beauty" to refer to somebody whose beauty does exist but is not widely recognised, agreed or self-evident. In case somebody has some grasp of Italian, he put it forward as a translation of "bellezza incompresa".
Trouble is, google returns http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22misunderstood+beauty%22+site%3A*.uk&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B2GGFB_enIT228IT228 for "misunderstood beauty" from British websites, so I was wondering if this phrase really exists. Would you say it? Would you understand this expression if you came across it?

We use also "genio incompreso" (which, by the same token, should be "misunderstood genius" -- well, http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=it&rlz=1B2GGFB_enIT228IT228&q=%22misunderstood+genius%22+site%3A*.uk&btnG=Cerca, much better! Emotion: smile) to refer to someboy who is actually a genius, but is not regarded as such. Would "misunderstood genius" be fine? Are there any other expressions to convey this idea?

Thank you very much. Emotion: smile
  

Top answer

"misunderstood genius" is unproblematic. As you say, it means someone whose genius goes unrecognised because what they are doing is not understood by their contemporaries. I'm less sure what "misunderstood beauty" ought to mean.

— Mr Wordy

  • "misunderstood genius" is unproblematic.
  • As you say, it means someone whose genius goes unrecognised because what they are doing is not understood by their contemporaries.
  • I'm less sure what "misunderstood beauty" ought to mean.
  • Beauty is not really something that you "understand".
  • If it's supposed to mean "unappreciated beauty" then it might be better to say that.
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4 Answers
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"misunderstood genius" is unproblematic. As you say, it means someone whose genius goes unrecognised because what they are doing is not understood by their contemporaries.

I'm less sure what "misunderstood beauty" ought to mean. Beauty is not really something that you "understand". If it's supposed to mean "unappreciated beauty" then it might be better to say that. Having said that, thou
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Thanks, Mr Wordy. Emotion: smile

Do you think he was playing with words?
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Tanit
Do you think he was playing with words?


I couldn't really say, but I'd guess not. Perhaps it was a literal word-for-word translation, or perhaps "misunderstood beauty" seems a more run-of-the-mill expression to that person than it does to me, or perhaps it is indeed the best concise translation from the Italian that can be achieved (my
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Hi,

Thank you very, very much, Mr Wordy.
Mr Wordy I'm talking about "misunderstood beauty" in the uncountable sense.
And that's exactly what I was looking for.
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