wench

Sranan Tongo: wenke

The noun is derived from Middle English wench, wenche (“female baby; girl (especially unmarried); maiden, young woman; bondwoman; serving maid; beloved, sweetheart; concubine, mistress; harlot, prostitute”) [and other forms], a shortened form of Middle English wenchel (“girl; maiden; child”), from Old English wenċel, winċel (“child; servant; slave”), from Proto-Germanic *wankilą, from Proto-Germanic *wankijaną (“to sway; waver”). The English word is cognate with Old High German wenken (“to waver; to give way, yield”), wankōn (“to totter”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

Jane played the role of a wench in an Elizabethan comedy.

I, like a tẽder harted vvench, ſkriked out for feare of the divell.

a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The Second Booke] Chapter 14”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC, folio 164, recto:

hee weepes like a wench that had ſhed her / milke, he hath confeſt himſelfe to Morgan, whom hee ſuppoſes to be a Friar, [...]

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 247, column 2:

Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz ſtayed by En-rogel: (for they might not be ſeene to come into the citie) and a wench went and told them: and they went, and tolde king Dauid.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Samuel 17:17, column 1:

Beside, this I affirm—afford / Impression of it in thy soul—I will not use my sword / On thee or any for a wench, unjustly though thou tak'st / The thing thou gav'st; […]

[1611?], Homer, “Book I”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC, page 35:

He [a chief minister] is uſually governed by a decayed Wench, or favourite Footman, who are the Tunnels through which all Graces are conveyed, and may properly be called, in the laſt Reſort, the Governors of the Kingdom.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Continuation of the State of England; so Well Governed by a Queen as to Need no First Minister. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 248:

He was received by the daughter of the house, a pretty, buxom, blue-eyed little wench, who seemed to regard the tall, bronzed, black-eyed stranger with much and evident favour.

1887, William Black, “New Quarters”, in Sabina Zembra […], volume III, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 22:

We got wenches on the benches, and bitties with titties / Housing all girlies from city to city

1986 November 15, Beastie Boys, Rick Rubin (lyrics and music), “Rhymin & Stealin”, in Licensed to Ill, performed by the Beastie Boys:

"Can't we use a real girl? Can't Maria just play along?" / "She's at the movies with Chanel." / "Lucky wench. Why can't Ryan just be with a guy? Aren't you offended?" / "Just doing what Rain said to do. And actually, a little, yeah."

2012 September 25, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 262 - Too Funny:

(archaic, now dialectal or humorous, possibly offensive) A girl or young woman, especially a buxom or lively one.

The woman is a brazen, hard-looking wench, a female pedlar, who hawks needles, thread, cheap looking-glasses, pious pictures, almanacs, hair-pins, ballads, of the most humble pattern, through the country.

1871, W[illiam] Barry, “The Barony of Threeneheila within Drum”, in Moorland and Stream. With Notes and Prose Idyls on Shooting and Trout Fishing, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 25:

(specifically) A girl or young woman of a lower class.

holka

(archaic) girl or young woman of a lower class

When they had kyndled a fyre in the myddes of the palys / and were sett doune to gedder / Peter alsoo sate doune amonge them. And won off the wenches / as he sate / beholde him by the light and sett goode eyesight on him / and sayde: This same was also with hym. Then he denyed hym sayinge: Woman I knowe hym nott.

1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Gospell off S. Luke xxij:[55–57], folios cxiiii, recto – cxiiii, verso:

"I fear there is a chase; I think I hear three or four galloping together; I am sure I hear more horses than one." / "Pooh, pooh, it is the wench of the house that is clattering to the well in her pattens; […]."

1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter V, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume I (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 150:

[W]orking for Colonel Boone a the time—and two more men whose names I disremember now, and a nigger wench we had for a cook. […] So I got onto one of the ponies and led the others down to the spring near camp to water them while the wench was a getting breakfast, and some o' the rest o' the outfit was a fixin the saddles and greasing the wagon.

1881, Henry Inman, “A Legend of Pawnee Rock; or How the Life of an Old Trapper was Saved by a Bird”, in Stories of the Old Santa Fe Trail, Kansas City, Mo.: Ramsey, Millett & Hudson, pages 89 and 91:

(archaic) A woman servant; a maidservant.

2 [Friar Bernardine]. Thou haſt committed— / Bar[abas]. Fornication? but that was in another Country; And beſides, the Wench is dead.

c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act IV, signature G2, verso:

Whilſt Men have theſe Ambitious Fancies, / And wanton Wenches read Romances, / Our Sex will—What? out with it: Lye: / And Theirs in equal Strains reply.

1702, Mat[thew] Prior, “To a Young Gentleman in Love. A Tale.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, 2nd edition, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 103:

It must not thought a digression from my intended speculation, to talk of bawds in a discourse upon wenches; for a woman of the town is not thoroughly and properly such, without having gone through the education of one of these houses.

1712 January 15 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, January 4, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 266; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 329:

(archaic) A promiscuous woman; a mistress (“other woman in an extramarital relationship”).

Nancy Basset, 28, likely wench, mulatto / Proved to be free. / Certified free as per General Birch Certificate. / / Patience Jackson, 23, very likely wench, mulatto / Says she was born free Rhode Island. / Certified free as per General Birch Certificate.

1776–1787, Carmelita Robertson, Elizabeth E. D. Eve, Black Loyalists of Nova Scotia: Tracing the History of Tracadie Loyalists, 1776–87 (Curatorial Report; no. 91), Halifax, N.S.: History Section, Nova Scotia Museum, Department of Tourism & Culture, published 2000, →ISBN:

Now, I bought a gal once, when I was in the trade,—a tight, likely wench she was, too, and quite considerable smart— [...]

1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “[Eliza’s Escape]”, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume I, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC, page 100:

A colored girl […] was fined ten dollars in the Freedman's Court yesterday, for being drunk and disorderly. Not having the money in her possession, she requested that a guard be sent with her to her residence to procure it. The Provost allowed a guard to wait on the wench, who, as soon as she found herself inside of her own door, locked it, and left the poor guard outside without the money. He returned to court without either the wench or fine.

1866 March 2, “Sharp Wench”, in The Appeal, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Minn.: Parker, Burgett & Hardy, →OCLC, page 3; quoted in Hannah Rosen, “Notes”, in Terror in the Heart of Freedom: Citizenship, Sexual Violence, and the Meaning of Race in the Postemancipation South (Gender and American Culture), Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2009, →ISBN, footnote 186, page 282:

So complete was this illusion, claims [Eric] Lott, that many audience members, including Mark Twain's mother, believed they were seeing authentic, biologically black performers on New York stages. Of course, wench characters seem to especially test the bounds of authentic performance. Played by men, wenches were nonetheless read by audiences as beautiful women: [...] [E]xtant photographs and engravings of wench performers do not always represent them as blacked up, […] In antebellum minstrel shows, wench songs were most often sung about mulatto women rather than by them.

2014, Kirsten Pullen, “Light Egyptian: Lena Horne and the Representation of Black Femininity”, in Like a Natural Woman: Spectacular Female Performance in Classical Hollywood, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, pages 106–107:

(US, archaic or historical) A black woman (of any age), especially if in a condition of servitude.


like

en-verb

like (third-person singular simple present likes, present participle liking, simple past and past participle liked)

likes (present singular third-person)
liking (participle present)
liked (participle past)
liked (past)

Jersey Dutch: lāike

Verb from Middle English liken, from Old English līcian (“to like, to please”), from Proto-West Germanic *līkēn, from Proto-Germanic *līkāną, from Proto-Indo-European *leyg- (“image; likeness; similarity”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian liekje (“to be similar, resemble”), Dutch lijken (“to seem”), German Low German lieken (“to be like; resemble”), German gleichen (“to resemble”), Swedish lika (“to like; put up with; align with”), Norwegian like (“to like”), Icelandic líka (“to like”).
Noun from Middle English like (“pleasure, will, like”), from the verb Middle English liken (“to like”).

inh

падаба́цца (padabácca) (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

plaĉi al (intransitive, the person who likes is marked with the preposition al)

dáma (with subject in dative case and object in accusative case)

hóva (with subject in dative case and object in accusative case)

líka (with subject in dative case and object in accusative case)

falla (with subject in dative case and object in accusative case)

plaire (à)

gefallen (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

מָצָא חֵן בְּעֵינֵי (matzá ẖen b'enéy, literally “found grace in the eyes of”) (with subject and object reversed)

tetszik (with the person or thing liked in the dative)

podobać się impf (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

нра́виться impf (nrávitʹsja) (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case) (e.g. мне нра́вится (mne nrávitsja) + nominative case - I like + object)

сви́ђати се impf (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

svíđati se impf (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

zespódobaś se pf (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

all above + indirect object: ལ་དོན (la don) (oblique/dative-locative case) (ལ/-ར (la / -ra))

подо́батися (podóbatysja) (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

געפֿעלן (gefeln) (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

You like well, and bear your years very well.

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

(obsolete) To have an appearance or expression; to look; to seem to be (in a specified condition).


swish

en-adj

swish (comparative swisher or more swish, superlative swishest or most swish)

swisher (comparative)
more swish (comparative)
swishest (superlative)
most swish (superlative)

When the boys go swish, they always score

2004, “Ladyflash”, in Thunder, Lightning, Strike, performed by The Go! Team:

The Saints, who started the day third in the table, went marching on thanks to their own swish play and some staggering defending by the visitors.

2014 October 18, Paul Doyle, “Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter”, in The Guardian:


cadaverous

cadaverous (comparative more cadaverous, superlative most cadaverous)

more cadaverous (comparative)
most cadaverous (superlative)

From Latin cadāverōsus; compare Middle English cadaverous (“gangrenous, mortified”).

cog

The speakers were three men, rather beyond middle life. One was pale and cadaverous, as if every feature gave testimony to the length of his vigils and the rigour of his fasts, while straight black hair hanging down on each side his face added to his wild and neglected appearance.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 196:

It may have been the sight of that cadaverous ambition and self-complacent meanness, which showed itself in Paley’s yellow face, and twinkled in his narrow eyes, or it may have been a natural appetite for pleasure and joviality, of which it must be confessed Mr. Pen was exceedingly fond, which deterred that luckless youth from pursuing his designs upon the Bench or the Woolsack with the ardour, or rather steadiness, which is requisite in gentlemen who would climb to those seats of honour.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 30, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

Some approached pure blanching; some had a bluish pallor; some worn by the older characters (which had possibly lain by folded for many a year) inclined to a cadaverous tint, and to a Georgian style.

1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the first (The Maiden), page 17:

1917 rev. 1925 Ezra Pound, "Canto I"
Dark blood flowed in the fosse,
Souls out of Erebus, cadaverous dead ...

By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 4, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

Corpselike; hinting of death; imitating a cadaver.


delgado

es-adj

delgado (feminine delgada, masculine plural delgados, feminine plural delgadas, superlative delgadísimo)

delgada (feminine)
delgados (masculine plural)
delgadas (feminine plural)
delgadísimo (superlative)

Inherited from Latin dēlicātus and doublet of delicado. Compare also English delicate.


voluptuous

en-adj

voluptuous (comparative more voluptuous, superlative most voluptuous)

more voluptuous (comparative)
most voluptuous (superlative)

From Middle French voluptueux, from Latin voluptuōsus (“delightful”), from voluptās (“pleasure, delight”), from volup (“with pleasure”).

The low neckline of her bodice emphasised her plump, voluptuous figure.

She was very dark skinned and has a voluptuous figure that she showed off with her stylish purple dress.

2018, Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death, HarperVoyager, page 35:

(of a woman) Curvaceous and sexually attractive.


pulchritude

en-noun

pulchritude (usually uncountable, plural pulchritudes)

[ˈpʰʌɫkɹəˌtjuːd]

[ˈpʰʌɫkɹəˌtuːd]

From Middle English pulcritude, from Latin pulchritūdō, from pulcher (“beautiful”).

1978, Charles D. Benson and William Barnaby Faherty, Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations, NASA Special Publication 4204, 1978, ch. 4 https://web.archive.org/web/20061020074600/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/ch4-8.html
One participant recalls arriving at his Cocoa Beach motel on a Saturday evening with the Miss Universe contest on TV. To his wife's amazement, his interest in feminine pulchritude gave way to fatigue, and he was asleep before the final selection.

Do you know why a woman of such pulchritude is married to me? 'Cause I make a comfortable living.


gordo

es-adj

gordo (feminine gorda, masculine plural gordos, feminine plural gordas, superlative gordísimo)

gorda (feminine)
gordos (masculine plural)
gordas (feminine plural)
gordísimo (superlative)

Los jóvenes son gordos.


gordo

es-noun

gordo m (plural gordos, feminine gorda, feminine plural gordas)

gordos (plural)
gorda (feminine)
gordas (feminine plural)

(informal, euphemistic) feces, the act of defecation, number two


glorious

head

glorious (comparative gloriousere, superlative gloriosest)

gloriousere (comparative)
gloriosest (superlative)

English: glorious

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman glorius, glorios, glorieus, from Latin glōriōsus; equivalent to glory + -ous.

Marvelous or wonderful to the senses: attractive, pleasing.


svelte

en-adj

svelte (comparative svelter, superlative sveltest)

svelter (comparative)
sveltest (superlative)

From French svelte, from Italian svelto (“stretched out”), past participle of svellere (“to pluck out, root out”), from Vulgar Latin *exvellere, from ex + vellere (“to pluck, stretch”).

Peering down from the cockpit at grazing elephant, you have the feeling that what you are beholding is wonderful, but not authentic. It is not only incongruous in the sense that animals simply are not as big as trees, but also in the sense that the twentieth century, tidy and svelte with stainless steel as it is, would not possibly permit such prehistoric monsters to wander in its garden.

1942, Beryl Markham, West with the Night:

At 61, Bryant looks good – smart and svelte in an electric blue suit, youthful, a full head of hair except for a white scar at the back that looks like a side door into his brain.

2023 August 5, Simon Hattenstone, “Labour MP Chris Bryant on cleaning up parliament, and why he’s not afraid to pick a fight: ‘I’ve got in more scrapes than most people’”, in The Guardian:


elegance

en-noun

elegance (usually uncountable, plural elegances)

From Middle French élégance, from Latin ēlegantia (“exquisiteness; refinement, elegance”).

der

The bride was elegance personified.

Grace, refinement, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners.

bilqá

grace, refinement, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners


fugly

en-adj

fugly (comparative fuglier, superlative fugliest)

fuglier (comparative)
fugliest (superlative)

"Fugly?" "Like extra-double ugly with cheese. It's when ugly goes off the scale. She looked like an angry handbag." Billie squawked in delight.

Man, but she's one fugly creature, horror-show fugly, I'm sorry.

1997, Enrico Brizzi, translated by Stash Luczkiw, Jack Frusciante Has Left the Band: A Love Story- with Rock 'n' Roll:

This girl is the nastiest skank bitch I've ever met. Do not trust her. She is a fugly slut.

2004, Mark Waters, Mean Girls, spoken by Regina George (Rachel McAdams), Broadway Video; distributed by Paramount Pictures:


dapper

dapper (comparative dapperer, superlative dapperest)

dapperer (comparative)
dapperest (superlative)

From Middle English daper (“pretty, neat”), from Middle Dutch dapper (“stalwart, nimble”), Old Dutch *dapar, from Proto-Germanic *dapraz (“stout; solid; heavy; bold”) (compare German tapfer "bold", Norwegian daper "saddened, dreary"), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeb- ‘thick, heavy’ (compare Tocharian A tpär ‘high’, Latvian dàbls ‘strong’, Serbo-Croatian дебео (dèbeo) ‘fat’).

der

Going down the street, you would meet a typical commercial traveller, dapper and alert.

1917, P. G. Wodehouse, The Man With Two Left Feet:

Stylishly dressed, neatly dressed, spiffy.


prank

en-verb

prank (third-person singular simple present pranks, present participle pranking, simple past pranked, past participle pranked or (archaic) prankt)

pranks (present singular third-person)
pranking (participle present)
pranked (past)
pranked (participle past)
prankt (archaic participle past)

→ Welsh: prancio

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English pranken (“to adorn, arrange one's attire”), probably from Middle Dutch pronken, proncken (“to flaunt, make a show, arrange one's attire”), related to German prangen (“to make a show, be resplendent”), Dutch prangen (“to squeeze, press”), Danish pragt (“pomp, splendor”), all from Proto-Germanic *pranganą, *prangijaną, *prag- (“to press, squeeze, thring”), from Proto-Indo-European *brAngh- (“to press, squeeze”). Or, perhaps ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *brahtaz, similar to Dutch pracht (“splendor”), Swedish prakt (“glory, pomp”) (loaned from Low German).
Cognate with Middle Low German prunken (“to flaunt”), German prunken (“to flaunt”), Danish prunke (“to make a show, prank”). Sense of "mischievous act" from earlier verbal sense of "to be crafty or subtle, set in order, adjust". See also prink, prance, prong.

der

In sumptuous tire she ioyd her selfe to prancke

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 36:

1748, James Thomson, The Castle of Indolence, B:II
And there a Seaſon atween June and May,
Half prankt with Spring, with Summer half imbrown'd,
A liſtleſs Climate made, where, Sooth to ſay,
No living Wight could work, ne cared even for Play.

Flora, wanton-eyed
For birth, and with all flowrets prankt and pied:

1880, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, For Spring, by Sandro Botticelli, lines 2–3:

(transitive, archaic) To adorn in a showy manner; to dress or equip ostentatiously.


wid

wid (nominative singular)
widy (nominative plural)
widu (genitive singular)
widów (genitive plural)
widowi (dative singular)
widom (dative plural)
wid (accusative singular)
widy (accusative plural)
widem (instrumental singular)
widami (instrumental plural)
widzie (locative singular)
widach (locative plural)
widzie (singular vocative)
widy (plural vocative)

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *vȋdъ, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *wéiˀdas, from Proto-Indo-European *wéyd-o-s, from *weyd- (“to see”). Cognate to Czech vid, Russian вид (vid) and Lithuanian véidas.

(obsolete) appearance (the way something looks; personal presence)


elegant

en-adj

elegant (comparative more elegant, superlative most elegant)

more elegant (comparative)
most elegant (superlative)

From Late Middle English elegaunt, from Middle French elegant, ultimately from Latin ēlegāns.

You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf.

2015 October 27, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better, Plum, →ISBN, page 192:

Characterised by or exhibiting elegance.


semen

enm-verb

semen (third-person singular simple present semeth, present participle semende, semynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle semed)

semeth (present singular third-person)
semende (participle present)
semynge (participle present)
semed (first-person indicative participle past singular third-person)
semen (infinitive)
to semen (infinitive)
seme (infinitive)
seme (first-person present singular)
semed (first-person past singular)
semest (present second-person singular)
semedest (past second-person singular)
semeth (present singular third-person)
semed (past singular third-person)
seme (present singular subjunctive)
semed (past singular subjunctive)
seme (imperative present singular)
semen (plural present)
seme (plural present)
semeden (past plural)
semede (past plural)
semeth (imperative plural present)
seme (imperative plural present)
semynge (participle present)
semende (participle present)
semed (participle past)
ysemed (participle past)

English: seem

Scots: seem

Borrowed from Old Norse sœma, from Proto-Germanic *sōmijaną, thus a doublet of Etymology 1.

To appear; to become visible or discernible.


complexion

From Middle English complexion (“temperament”), from Old French complexion (French complexion), from Medieval Latin complexiō (“complexion, constitution”), from complector, past participle complexus (“to entwine, encompass”).

der

a rugged complexion

a sunburnt complexion

Prince of Morocco: Mislike me not for my complexion, / The shadow’d livery of the burnish’d sun, / To whom I am a neighbour, and near bred. […]

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

"I shall do nothing for the next week but study my costume and complexion," said she. "Ethel and myself will consider our conquests as proper compliments to your kindness."

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Asking for an Invitation”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 28:

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 193:

“Yes, Mr. Holmes, I teach music.”
“In the country, I presume, from your complexion.”
“Yes, sir, near Farnham, on the borders of Surrey.”

1903 December 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:

This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. In complexion fair, and with blue or gray eyes, he was tall as any Viking, as broad in the shoulder.

1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

Nurse Cramer had a cute nose and a radiant, blooming complexion dotted with fetching sprays of adorable freckles that Yossarian detested.

1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171:

The quality, colour, or appearance of the skin on the face.

It was a little unfortunate that the fib unfibbed gave their consultations something the complexion of that close understanding which exists between penitent and confessor.

1910, Bernard Capes, Why Did He Do It?, page 207:

(figuratively) The outward appearance of something.

That minister was galbet, or admiral of the realm, very much in his master’s confidence, and a person well versed in affairs, but of a morose and sour complexion.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):

But the purely marginal jottings, done with no eye to the Memorandum Book, have a distinct complexion, and not only a distinct purpose, but none at all; this it is which imparts to them a value.


bonito

es-adj

bonito (feminine bonita, masculine plural bonitos, feminine plural bonitas)

bonita (feminine)
bonitos (masculine plural)
bonitas (feminine plural)


gorge

en-adj

gorge (comparative more gorge, superlative most gorge)

more gorge (comparative)
most gorge (superlative)

Clipping of gorge(ous); originally British slang.

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-gorge.wav

Oh, look at him: isn’t he gorge?

"Um, Hadley? Don't tell me that's another new outfit. It's totally gorge!” Sofia stopped me in the middle of the hallway to admire the clothes I'd meticulously picked out that morning.

2013, Brittany [Lyn] Geragotelis, chapter 1, in Life’s a Witch, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster BFYR, →ISBN, page 19:

While she's [Katy Perry's] been hard at work on her singing and choreography, designers have been hard at work coming up with the most gorge, glam, and fabulous costumes for her to wear on stage.

2014 May 5, “Katy Perry Reveals Her Prismatic World Tour Costumes Featuring Cavalli, Valentino, & MORE!”, in PerezHilton.com, archived from the original on 2019-03-28:

Now here's a little inside scoop, I happen to adore Michelle [Visage] and she has never looked more gorge than in this episode!

2017 May 12, Carson Kressley, “RuPaul’s Drag Race Recap: ‘RuPaul Roast’”, in Entertainment Weekly, archived from the original on 2019-03-28:


nubile

nubile (comparative more nubile, superlative most nubile)

more nubile (comparative)
most nubile (superlative)

From French nubile, from Latin nūbilis (“marriageable”), from nūbō (“marry, to take as husband”), from Proto-Indo-European *snewbʰ- (“to marry, to wed”). Possibly cognate with Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “bride, young wife, nymph”) (English nymph), but this is disputed.

cog

Sexually attractive (especially of a young woman).


preen

en-verb

preen (third-person singular simple present preens, present participle preening, simple past and past participle preened)

preens (present singular third-person)
preening (participle present)
preened (participle past)
preened (past)

Variant of prune (by influence of preen above). Attested in Chaucer (c. 1395) in the variants preyneth, prayneth, proyneth, prunyht, pruneth, from Old French proignier (“to trim the feathers with the beak”).

der

Mr Kernan halted and preened himself before the sloping mirror of Peter Kennedy, hairdresser. Stylish coat, beyond a doubt. Scott of Dawson street. Well worth the half sovereign I gave Neary for it.

(of people, intransitive, reflexive) To spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance, e.g. in front of a mirror.

šlechtit se

to spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance (of people)

He brushed and preened the marquis, front and back. “Lucky we are, Your Grace, no gashes that I see. But the beard is in a woeful state —”

2011, Brennan Pursell, The Spanish Match, page 26:

Clearly this is not heritage tourism development. Instead it recommends how to preen the city for the uncritical gaze of a kind of tourist who willingly accepts low-grade commercialized leisure.

2011, Dean MacCannell, The Ethics of Sightseeing, page 200:

He'd built a lodge and preened the country, and imported or otherwise attracted the game, and then found that no one came.

A piece of human debris, usually plucked up and disposed of by the group of volunteers who pruned and preened the woods on a weekly basis.

(transitive, more generally) To improve the appearance of; groom; prettify.


decoration

en-noun

decoration (countable and uncountable, plural decorations)

/ˌdɛkəˈɹeɪʃən/

From Latin decoratio: compare French décoration.
Morphologically decorate + -ion


dolly

en-adj

dolly (comparative more dolly, superlative most dolly)

more dolly (comparative)
most dolly (superlative)

Disputed. Most scholars derive the term from doll + -y, as Etymology 1, above. Linguist Ian Hancock, however, suggests derivation from Italian dolce (“sweet”).

Divine. Sitting, sipping a tiny drinkette, vadaïng the great butch omis and dolly little palones trolling by, or disporting yourself on the sable plage getting your lallies all bronzed - your riah getting bleached by the soleil.

1967, Kenneth Horne, Bona Bijou Tourettes (Round the Horne), season 3, episode 12:

She minces past the brandy latch / to vada dolly dish for trade, silly / with oomph and taste to park.

2015 October 12, Adam Lowe, “Poem of the week: Vada That”, in The Guardian:


deck

From Middle English dekke, borrowed from Middle Dutch dec (“roof, covering”), from Middle Dutch decken, from Old Dutch thecken, from Proto-West Germanic *þakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *þakjaną. Formed the same: German Decke (“covering, blanket”). Doublet of thatch and thack.

rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

shuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic

Wily carp are quickly put on their guard by tight lines cutting through the water, so another common measure is to use a back lead to keep the line on the deck.

2012, Peter Kaminsky, Greg Schwipps, “Part IV: Now You're Fishing”, in Fishing for Dummies, UK edition, Adapted by Dominic Garnett, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., page 298:

(British, fishing) The bottom of a water body.


deck

en-verb

deck (third-person singular simple present decks, present participle decking, simple past and past participle decked)

decks (present singular third-person)
decking (participle present)
decked (participle past)
decked (past)

From Middle English dekken, from Middle Dutch dekken (“to cover”), from Old Dutch thecken, from Proto-West Germanic *þakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *þakjaną (“to roof; cover”).

der

And deck my body in gay ornaments, / And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.

c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

Decke thy selfe now with Maiestie, and excellencie, and aray thy selfe with glory, and beautie.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 40:10:

They call beautiful a dress, a dog, a sermon; and when they are face to face with Beauty cannot recognise it. The false emphasis with which they try to deck their worthless thoughts blunts their susceptibilities.

1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 39”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

(transitive, sometimes with out) To dress (someone) up, to clothe with more than ordinary elegance.


hag

From Middle English hagge, hegge (“demon, old woman”), shortening of Old English hægtesse, hægtes (“harpy, witch”), from Proto-West Germanic *hagatussjā. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Häkse (“witch”), Dutch heks, German Hexe (“witch”). Doublet of hex.

Flamma lambentes (or those we call Haggs) are made of Sweat or some other Vapour issuing out of the Head; a not-unusuall sight amongst us when we ride by night in the Summer time: They are extinguisht, like flames, by shaking the Horse Mains

1656, Thomas White, Peripateticall Institutions, page 149:

(obsolete) An appearance of light and fire on a horse's mane or a person's hair.


scraggy

en-adj

scraggy (comparative scraggier, superlative scraggiest)

scraggier (comparative)
scraggiest (superlative)

Her tender arms the angry sharpness rue
Of many a scraggy thorn and envious brier;

c. 1890, William Dean Howells, Tennyson, stanza 18:

[H]e grasped the rock. It was scraggy, and though it tore and bruised him he clung to it.

1894, Gilbert Parker, chapter 10, in The Trail of The Sword:


resemblance

en-noun

resemblance (countable and uncountable, plural resemblances)

From Anglo-Norman resemblance, from Old French (compare French ressemblance).
Morphologically resemble + -ance.

His wife and sister had too many points of resemblance, not to entertain a strong and mutual dislike.

1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “(please specify the page)”, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, pages 16–17:


drab

drab (countable and uncountable, plural drabs)

Probably from Middle French and Old French drap (“cloth”), either:
* from Late Latin drappus (“drabcloth, kerchief; piece of cloth”), most likely from Gaulish *drappo, from Proto-Indo-European *drep- (“to scratch, tear”); or
* from Frankish *drapi, *drāpi (“that which is fulled, drabcloth”), from Proto-Germanic *drap-, *drēp- (“something beaten”), from *drepaną (“to beat, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrebʰ- (“to beat, crush; to make or become thick”).
The English word is cognate with Ancient Greek δρέπω (drépō, “to pluck”), Avestan 𐬛𐬭𐬀𐬟𐬱𐬀 (drafša, “banner, flag”), Lithuanian drãpanos (“household linens”), Old Norse trefja (“to rub, wear out”), trof (“fringes”), Sanskrit द्रापि (drāpi, “mantle, gown”), Serbo-Croatian drápati (“to scratch, scrape”)).

cog

The slimy little causeway had dropped into the river by a slow process of suicide, and two or three stumps of piles and a rusty iron mooring-ring were all that remained of the departed Break-Neck glories. [...] [T]hrough three-fourths of its rising tides the dirty indecorous drab of a river would come solitarily oozing and lapping at the rusty ring, [...]

1867 December 12, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, “No Thoroughfare”, in Charles Dickens, editor, All The Year Round: Extra Christmas Number, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 3, column 2:

Watership Down review – CGI rabbits can't save this Christmas turkey. The 1970s cartoon traumatised generations of children, but the new version is tame, drab and deeply unsatisfying. What, really, was the point?

2018 December 23, Lucy Mangan, “WatershipDown review - CGI rabbits can't save this Christmas turkey”, in The Guardian:

A drab office block sandwiched between a pub and a branch of Starbucks was a secret base of spy agency GCHQ, it has been confirmed. The anonymous building opposite St James's Park Tube station in central London was used by British spooks for 66 years.

2019 April 5, Joseph Lee, “Drab London office block was GCHQ spy base”, in BBC:

(by extension) A dull or uninteresting appearance or situation, unremarkable.


sheen

en-noun

sheen (countable and uncountable, plural sheens)

From Middle English shene, schene, from Old English sċīene (“beautiful, fair, bright, brilliant, light”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaunī, from Proto-Germanic *skauniz (“beautiful”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewh₁-.
Cognate with Scots schene, scheine (“beautiful, fair, attractive”), Saterland Frisian skeen (“clean, pure”), West Frisian skjin (“nice, clean”), Dutch schoon (“clean, beautiful, fair”), German schön (“beautiful”), Danish skøn (“beautiful”), Norwegian Bokmål skjønn (“beautiful”), Norwegian Nynorsk skjønn (“beautiful”), Swedish skön (“beautiful, fine”). Compare also the loanword Finnish kaunis (“beautiful”). See also English show.

inh

There is a greenish sheen across the shoulders of his greasy black suit, for the morning light has of a sudden begun to dance through the bay window.

Mr. Leerhsen said in an interview that he wanted to write a book without the dutiful sheen of what he called “an official Bourdain product.”

2022 September 27, Kim Severson, “The Last, Painful Days of Anthony Bourdain”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(also figuratively) Splendor; radiance; shininess.


splendid

en-adj

splendid (comparative splendider or more splendid, superlative splendidest or most splendid)

splendider (comparative)
more splendid (comparative)
splendidest (superlative)
most splendid (superlative)

From Latin splendidus, from splendere (“to shine”) + -idus (“adjective forming suffix”).

suffix

a splendid palace

a splendid procession

a splendid pageant

Gorgeous; magnificent; sumptuous; of remarkable beauty.


shaggy

en-adj

shaggy (comparative shaggier, superlative shaggiest)

shaggier (comparative)
shaggiest (superlative)

a shaggy dog

They waited until Dorothy awoke the next morning. The little girl was quite frightened when she saw the great pile of shaggy wolves, but the Tin Woodman told her all. She thanked him for saving them and sat down to breakfast, after which they started again upon their journey.

1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC:

Away from the village, there was an enclosure containing several large animals of a kind I had not seen before—shaggy, long-necked, small-headed creatures who stood or lay at ease around their pen. Alpacas?

1989, Octavia E. Butler, “Part III, Chapter 7”, in Imago, page 210:

Having long, thick, and uncombed hair, fur or wool.

kalesh

with long, thick, and uncombed hair, fur, or wool


tasty

tasty (comparative tastier, superlative tastiest)

tastier (comparative)
tastiest (superlative)

From taste + -y.
The Philippine sense is due to a genericized trademark from Taystee Bread Company, a defunct American company.

Country fans probably remember Stu best for a tasty tune he wrote and recorded but didn't want released.

1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 5:

(slang) Appealing; when applied to persons, sexually appealing.


sly

head

sly (plural and weak singular slye, comparative slyer, superlative sliest)

slye (plural)
slye (singular weak)
slyer (comparative)
sliest (superlative)

English: sly

Scots: slee

Borrowed from Old Norse slǿgr, from Proto-Germanic *slōgiz.


showy

en-adj

showy (comparative showier, superlative showiest)

showier (comparative)
showiest (superlative)

showy flowers

Making a striking or aesthetically pleasing display.

auffällig

making a striking or aesthetically pleasing display


bombshell

Diana Dors, the 1950s blonde bombshell

The singer once identified by her shock of green hair has gone blonde and full bombshell, swapping her trademark sweats for a style more domme than deb: pink Gucci corset and skirt over Agent Provocateur skivvies, accessorized with latex gloves and leggings.

2021 May 4, Ruth La Ferla, “On That Bombshell Billie Eilish Cover for British Vogue”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(by extension) Someone who is very attractive; a sex symbol.


Bond girl

Sam scowled. 'I hate villains who call me Miss Jones,' she told him. 'It makes me feel like a Bond girl.'

1998, Justin Richards, chapter 12, in Option Lock, page 232:

When a lunch companion suggested that she might not want to take the Halle Berry route should she be nominated for an Oscar for "Monster," and win — soul-searching performance followed by a turn as a Bond girl — Theron threw her head back and howled.

One of the beautiful, seductive young women who appear in James Bond movies.


decorate

en-verb

decorate (third-person singular simple present decorates, present participle decorating, simple past and past participle decorated)

decorates (present singular third-person)
decorating (participle present)
decorated (participle past)
decorated (past)

From Latin decoratus, past participle of decorare (“to adorn, distinguish, honor”), from decus (“ornament, grace, dignity, honor”), akin to decor (“elegance, grace, beauty, ornament”), from decet (“adorn, befit”).

There's some paint left over from when we decorated the guest bedroom.

(transitive) To improve the appearance of an interior of, as a house, room, or office.

ремонтирам

to improve the appearance of a house, room, office and so forth


beautify

beautify (third-person singular simple present beautifies, present participle beautifying, simple past and past participle beautified)

beautifies (present singular third-person)
beautifying (participle present)
beautified (participle past)
beautified (past)

From Middle English beutifien, from Old French beaute (“beauty”), from Latin bellus (“beautiful, fine”), + -ify, from Latin facio (“make”).


purdy

en-adj

purdy (comparative purdier, superlative purdiest)

purdier (comparative)
purdiest (superlative)

Corruption of pretty, representing the pronunciation of this word in the southern United States.

Yes sirree, you're the purdiest li'l thing I ever did see.

Why, you got a purdy mouth boy.

(US, slang and dialects, like Southern US and Appalachia) pretty.


gorgeous

gorgeous (comparative more gorgeous, superlative most gorgeous)

more gorgeous (comparative)
most gorgeous (superlative)

From Middle English gorgeouse, a borrowing from Middle French gorgias (“elegant, fashionable”), from Old French gourgias, gorgias (“gorgeous, gaudy, flaunting, gallant, fine”), of uncertain origin, but apparently connected with Old French gorgias (“a gorget, ruffle for the neck”), from Old French gorge (“bosom, throat”). See gorge. Semantic evolution probably akin to "swelling of the throat or bosom due to pride, bridling up" to "assume an air of importance, flaunting".

cog

Hummus is absolutely gorgeous.

(rare) Very enjoyable, pleasant, tasty, etc.


butch

en-adj

butch (comparative butcher or more butch, superlative butchest or most butch)

butcher (comparative)
more butch (comparative)
butchest (superlative)
most butch (superlative)

Originally, it was probably used as an abbreviation of butcher. Later, in the 1940s, the sense “masculine lesbian” developed.

There, look, Mr. Horne! Vada that great butch lucoddy!

1967, Barry Took, Marty Feldman, Round the Horne, spoken by Sandy (Kenneth Williams):

Nor can I credit that a — to put it crudely — proud bisexual butch Italian — albeit one lonely, poor, emotional and without strong will — which Giovanni is shown to be in the earlier part of the book, should become, in a mere matter of months, and as the result of any happening, the venal hysterical fairy that he does.

1979, Colin MacInnes, Out of the way: later essays:

Then I started going out with different kinds of women, and I started feeling more like I wanted to be more butch. […] I feel much more butch than I feel femme.

1998, Kath Weston, Render Me, Gender Me: Lesbians Talk Sex, Class, Color, Nation, Studmuffins, Columbia University Press, →ISBN:

The process of appreciating a butch aesthetic may be even more complex for bisexual butch women. In contrast to lesbian butches who may date only within a butch-femme community, bisexual butch women may be more likely to […] In comparison to butch bisexual women, it may be easier for femme bisexual women to locate male and female dating partners […]

2007, Beth A. Firestein, Becoming Visible: Counseling Bisexuals Across the Lifespan, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 305:

More of the rotten responses I receive about being a bisexual butch woman come from other bisexuals, particularly men, who don't want to deal with any woman who is not some Barbie doll standard of femininity.

2014, Naomi S Tucker, Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions, Routledge, →ISBN, page 186:

"Faye got wicked buff and has a super butch haircut and it is hot as shit." "It's okay, babe. We can ogle her together."

2016, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content (webcomic), Number 3154: Coupling:

(slang, originally Polari) Very masculine, with a masculine appearance or attitude.


camouflage

en-noun

camouflage (countable and uncountable, plural camouflages)

/ˈkæ.məˌflɑːʒ/

Unadapted borrowing from French camouflage, from camoufler (“to veil, disguise”), alteration (due to camouflet (“smoke blown in one's face”)) of Italian camuffare (“to muffle the head”), from ca- (from Italian capo (“head”)) + muffare (“to muffle”), from Medieval Latin muffula, muffla (“muff”). This Medieval Latin, from which there is also English muffle, is either derived from a Frankish *molfell (“soft garment made of hide”) from *mol (“softened, forworn”) (akin to Old High German molawēn (“to soften”), Middle High German molwic (“soft”)) + *fell (“hide, skin”), from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”), or, an alternate etymology traces it to a Frankish *muffël (“a muff, wrap, envelope”) composed of *mauwa (“sleeve, wrap”) from Proto-Germanic *mawwō (“sleeve”) + *fell (“skin, hide”) from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”).

der

Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close[…]above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. Many insects probably use this strategy, which is a close analogy to crypsis in the visible world—camouflage and other methods for blending into one’s visual background.

2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:

(biology) Resemblance of an organism to its surroundings for avoiding detection.


camouflage

→ English: camouflage

→ Japanese: カモフラージュ

→ German: Camouflage

→ Greek: καμουφλάζ n (kamoufláz)

→ Korean: 카무플라주 (kamupeullaju)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: kamuflasje

→ Portuguese: camuflagem

→ Romanian: camuflaj

→ Russian: камуфля́ж (kamufljáž) (see there for further descendants)

→ Spanish: camuflaje

→ Turkish: kamuflaj

From camoufler (“disguise, to hide”) + -age (noun-forming suffix).


esthetics

en-noun

esthetics (usually uncountable, plural esthetics)

(American spelling) Alternative form of aesthetics


candidus

la-adj

candidus (feminine candida, neuter candidum, comparative candidior, superlative candidissimus); first/second-declension adjective

candida (feminine)
candidum (neuter)
candidior (comparative)
candidissimus (superlative)
candidus (masculine nominative singular)
candida (feminine nominative singular)
candidum (neuter nominative singular)
candidī (masculine nominative plural)
candidae (feminine nominative plural)
candida (neuter nominative plural)
candidī (genitive masculine singular)
candidae (feminine genitive singular)
candidī (genitive neuter singular)
candidōrum (genitive masculine plural)
candidārum (feminine genitive plural)
candidōrum (genitive neuter plural)
candidō (dative masculine singular)
candidae (dative feminine singular)
candidō (dative neuter singular)
candidīs (dative feminine masculine neuter plural)
candidum (accusative masculine singular)
candidam (accusative feminine singular)
candidum (accusative neuter singular)
candidōs (accusative masculine plural)
candidās (accusative feminine plural)
candida (accusative neuter plural)
candidō (ablative masculine singular)
candidā (ablative feminine singular)
candidō (ablative neuter singular)
candidīs (ablative feminine masculine neuter plural)
candide (masculine singular vocative)
candida (feminine singular vocative)
candidum (neuter singular vocative)
candidī (masculine plural vocative)
candidae (feminine plural vocative)
candida (neuter plural vocative)

→ Catalan: càndid

→ English: candid

→ Spanish: cándido

→ French: candide

→ Galician: cándido

Italian: candido

Piedmontese: candi

→ Portuguese: cândido

→ Romanian: candid

[ˈkän̪d̪ɪd̪ʊs̠]

Toga candida.


comeliness

en-noun

comeliness (usually uncountable, plural comelinesses)

From comely + -ness (“the quality of being”).

Hereat Alaeddin arose and took horse, his Mamelukes riding a-van and a-rear of him, and they were such that all must cry, "Laud to the Lord who created them and clothed them with such beauty and loveliness." And they scattered gold amongst the crowd in front of their master who surpassed them all in comeliness and seemlihead[…]

1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC:

Quality of being comely; beauty, attractiveness.


漂亮

/pʰi̯ɑʊ̯⁵¹ li̯ɑŋ¹/

/pʰi̯ɑʊ̯⁵¹⁻⁵³ li̯ɑŋ⁵¹/

/pʰiɔː⁴⁴ liɑŋ²⁴/

/pʰiːu̯³³ lœːŋ²²/

/pʰiɛu²¹³⁻²¹ liɔŋ¹/

/pʰieu⁵⁵⁻⁵³ l̃uɔŋ²⁴²/

/piau⁴¹⁻⁵⁵⁴ liaŋ⁴¹/

/pʰiɔ³³ liã⁴⁴/

/pʰiæ⁵² liã¹¹/

/pʰi̯ɑʊ̯⁵¹ li̯ɑŋ¹/

/pʰi̯ɑʊ̯⁵¹⁻⁵³ li̯ɑŋ⁵¹/

/pʰiɔː⁴⁴ liɑŋ²⁴/

/pʰiːu̯³³ lœːŋ²²/

/pʰiɛu²¹³⁻²¹ liɔŋ¹/

/pʰieu⁵⁵⁻⁵³ l̃uɔŋ²⁴²/

/piau⁴¹⁻⁵⁵⁴ liaŋ⁴¹/

/pʰiɔ³³ liã⁴⁴/

/pʰiæ⁵² liã¹¹/

傲人

nowadays especially of breasts, body curve

這個地方真漂亮！

这个地方真漂亮！

她是個漂亮的姑娘。

她是个漂亮的姑娘。

她很漂亮迷人吧？

你的眼睛很漂亮。

She is very beautiful. (lit.: "she grew up very beautiful")

她長得很漂亮。

她长得很漂亮。


skank

en-adj

skank (comparative more skank, superlative most skank)

more skank (comparative)
most skank (superlative)

Unknown. Perhaps from skag (“unattractive woman”), but the origins of skag are unknown. Compare scold (“troublesome woman”), skeevy (“disgusting”). Attested from the 1960s.

"I wear provocative clothes because they make me feel sexy," Toni says without apology. "If an artist like Madonna is wearing her booty hanging out, she's considered a genius. But if a black person does it, we're considered skank whores or sluts."

1997 June–July, Michael A. Gonzales, “Toni's secret: Miss Braxton lets it all hang out”, in Vibe, volume 5, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Time Publishing Ventures; Intermedia Vibe Holdings, →ISSN, page 92:

You can even be a wee bit more skank and don a dirty shirt. Unwashed underwear, however, is a no-go.

2001, Angela Nissel, The Broke Diaries, →ISBN, page 49:

(derogatory, slang) Lewd, vulgar, skanky.


grotesque

grotesque (comparative grotesquer, superlative grotesquest)

grotesquer (comparative)
grotesquest (superlative)

From Middle French grotesque (French grotesque), from Italian grottesco (“of a cave”), from grotta. Compare English grotto.

Coordinate term: baroque

The chimney-piece was of party-coloured marble, covered with figures, some of whose faces were beautiful, but generally running off into those grotesque combinations which characterised the peculiar taste of their time.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 114:

A Libyan longing took us, and we would have chosen, if we could, to bear a strand of grotesque beads, or a handful of brazen gauds, and traffic them for some sable maid with crisp locks, whom, uncoffling from the captive train beside the desert, we should make to do our general housework forever, through the right of lawful purchase.

1912, The World's Wit and Humor, page 176:

Some of the vehicles are, indeed, taxis, but all of them are unoccupied, and most have their doors left open. There are colossally tall darkened figures stalking down the streets, so dark and slender that Wheeler actually fails to notice them. There is screaming, a grotesque, awful screaming coming from many human mouths, coming from somewhere down the main road. But that's the only way he can go.

2019 April 10, qntm, “CASE HATE RED”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 2024-05-29:

Distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal, especially in a hideous way.

غَرِيب

distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous


grotesque

→ Romanian: grotesc

From Middle French grotesque, from Italian grottesco (“of a cave”), from grotta.


homely

homely (comparative homelier or more homely, superlative homeliest or most homely)

homelier (comparative)
more homely (comparative)
homeliest (superlative)
most homely (superlative)

From Middle English homly, hoomly, hamely (“domestic, familiar, plain, unattractive”), from Old English *hāmlīċ (“of the home, domestic”), from Proto-West Germanic *haimalīk (“of or characteristic of home”), equivalent to home + -ly. Cognate with Scots hamely (“familiar, personal, private”), West Frisian heimelik, Dutch heimelijk (“secret, secretive, clandestine”), German heimlich (“secret, secretive, clandestine, undercover”), Danish hemmelig (“secret”), Swedish hemlig (“secret, concealed, privy, covert”), Faroese heimligur (“homelike, homey”), Icelandic heimlegur (“homely; worldly”).

cog

There is none so homely but loves a looking-glass.

1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

"I can't send a young, pretty girl, or for that matter even a homely one if you'd have her, on a job like this without telling her what to expect."

1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 6:

You see, she sees herself as a starlet; I see her as a sturdy, healthy but decidedly homely kid.

1958, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 15, in Lolita:

(Canada, US) Lacking in beauty or elegance, plain in appearance, physically unattractive.


lovely

English: lovely

Scots: luely

Inherited from Old English luflīċ; equivalent to loven (“to love”) + -ly (adjectival suffix).


unkempt

en-adj

unkempt (comparative more unkempt, superlative most unkempt)

more unkempt (comparative)
most unkempt (superlative)

From earlier unkembed, unkemmed, from Middle English unkempt (“uncombed”), equivalent to un- + kempt. Compare Old Norse úkembdr (uncombed; unkempt"; > Icelandic ókembdur), German ungekämmt (“unkempt”), Dutch ongekamd. More at kemb.

gloss

uncombed; unkempt"; > Icelandic <i class="Latn mention" lang="is">ókembdur</i>

Men on cycles, lean-faced, unkempt, scorched along every country lane, shouting of unhoped deliverance, shouting to gaunt, staring figures of despair.

1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 289:


crow's feet

Wrinkles at the outer corners of the eye.

potes de gall

wrinkles at the outer corners of the eye


spiffy

en-adj

spiffy (comparative spiffier, superlative spiffiest)

spiffier (comparative)
spiffiest (superlative)

Unknown. Attested in print from 1852 (see quotations below). Compare the noun spiff, attested from 1859, as well as spiffing (1872) and spiffed (1881), suggesting participle forms of a related verb. Compare also spiv (“a smartly-dressed criminal”), attested from the 20th century.

He was “great” (as he expressed it) with the Bloomer who kept the bar where their club was held, and whom he styled “a spiffy girl,” and who had been graciously pleased to accept of a pair of very Brummagem-looking earrings, set with paste diamonds, with which he had presented her.

1852, “How Jeremiah Tubbs became engaged in the Irish elections of 1852”, in New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, page 66:

The charming twins came last week, and you should see their clothes. ‘Spiffy’ is the word.

1906 August 26, “Newport News in London”, in The New York Times, page 9:

(informal) Dapper; fine or neat, especially in style of clothing or other appearance.


eye candy

From eye + candy. Early-1980’s US TV and advertising jargon, perhaps influenced by earlier nose candy (“cocaine”).

I'm going to the beach to check out some eye candy.

But despite his claims that NBC would become “the class act,” not all of [Fred] Silverman's changes seemed aimed in direction of excellence. Unfortunately his rationale for eschewing exploitative “eye candy” seemed to apply to more serious sex-related ventures as well.

1980, Geoffrey Cowan, See No Evil, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 309:

A very attractive person or persons, or the salient visible physical attributes thereof.

DirectX 10 promises an almost obscene step up in the level of eye candy you can expect from an A-list game, which is the great news. The bad news is, you'll need a new videocard to get those gorgeous graphics.

2007, Maximum PC, number Winter, page 3:

(by extension) Any object or sight with considerable visual appeal.


radiant

radiant (comparative more radiant, superlative most radiant)

more radiant (comparative)
most radiant (superlative)

From Middle English radyant, from Latin radiāns, radiantis, present participle of radiāre (“to emit rays or beams”).

(botany) Having a ray-like appearance, like the large marginal flowers of certain umbelliferous plants; said also of the cluster which has such marginal flowers.


beaut

That new car of yours is a real beaut.

(informal) Something or someone that is physically attractive.


beaut

beaut (comparative beauter, superlative beautest)

beauter (comparative)
beautest (superlative)

An' there was posies all round Jim, He had a bran new suit, The first un that he ever had, An' everything was beaut. An' when the preacher told 'bout Jim— How ' twas he got the swipe— I saw most all them dandy swells A feelin' fer a wipe.

1895, Elbridge Kingsley, Frederick Knab, Picturesque Worcester ...: Complete in Three Parts, page 40:

It was beaut to have him home again, and gee, you should have seen the bike he bought me from Paris. From the same factory as his own was made.

She was very motherly towards me then and it was beaut. Before I was eighteen, there just wasn't any kind words. All I wanted to do was get away from there.

1978, Kevin Gilbert, Living Black: Blacks Talk to Kevin Gilbert:

Yes, it was beaut.

1996, Madeleine St. John, A Pure Clear Light, 4th Estate, Limited:

(informal, especially Australia) Beautiful, splendid.


plain

plain (comparative plainer, superlative plainest)

plainer (comparative)
plainest (superlative)

From Middle English pleyn, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pleyn, playn, Middle French plain, plein, and Old French plain, from Latin plānus (“flat, even, level, plain”). Doublet of llano, piano, and plane.

der

Yet her beauty clung to her like an identity she was trying to deny and her plainness kept slipping like a bad disguise.

Throughout high school she worried that she had a rather plain face.


beautification

en-noun

beautification (countable and uncountable, plural beautifications)

Attested since at least 1790, from beautify (“to make beautiful”) + -ification.

suffix

Thanks to the beautification efforts, the appearance of the highway has vastly improved.

Making beautiful, beautifying, improving the appearance of something.


pallid

en-adj

pallid (comparative pallider, superlative pallidest)

pallider (comparative)
pallidest (superlative)

The patient left the hospital but was very pallid.


aesthete

From Ancient Greek αἰσθητής (aisthētḗs, “one who perceives”).

der

I prefer to think of [literature] as providing a discipline of the sensibility—a special way of apprehending reality. But though I prefer such a conception, it gives rise to all sorts of misunderstandings […] To define literature in this fashion is to risk being called a mere aesthete and even an ecapist who refuses to face the harsh facts of life.

a. 1994, Cleanth Brooks, “English Literature: A Subject Matter? A Discipline? A Special Amalgam?”, in Community, Religion, Literature, published 1995, →ISBN, page 184:

Because what the aesthete does is to say, “oh, I can transform any unpleasant experience into a moment of beauty.”

2000, Tom Huhn, “The Anatomy of Beauty”, in Michael Tobias, J. Patrick Fitzgerald, David Rothenberg, editors, A Parliament of Minds: Philosophy for a New Millennium, page 237:

Although Stanley was the political operator while Pick was the aesthete, it was Stanley who made the early running in Underground design.

2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 159:

Since the days of Søren Kierkegaard, aesthetics – by him termed the aesthetic that is worshipped by the aesthete – has been accused of subjectivism and relativism. An aesthete is allegedly characterized by finding sensuous pleasure in particular phenomena, and by being different from the ethicist or the religious person in being unable to recognize or commit himself to anything universal.

2015, Dorthe Jørgensen, “Sensoriness and Transcendence: On the Aesthetic Possibility of Experiencing Divinity”, in Svein Aage Christoffersen et al., editors, Transcendence and Sensoriness: Perceptions, Revelation, and the Arts, →ISBN, page 68:

(often derogatory) Someone who cultivates an unusually high sensitivity to beauty, as in art or nature, often in a manner perceived to prioritize beauty over other qualities such as virtue and utility.

esteta

someone who cultivates an unusually high sensitivity to beauty, as in art or nature


untidy

en-adj

untidy (comparative untidier, superlative untidiest)

untidier (comparative)
untidiest (superlative)

His finances were in an untidy state when he died.

There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs,[…], and all these articles[…] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:


bela

eo-head

bela (accusative singular belan, plural belaj, accusative plural belajn)

belan (accusative singular)
belaj (plural)
belajn (accusative plural)

1907, Filipina Esperantisto, Volumes 1-2:

How beautiful are its tall mountains completely covered with plants!

1915, L. L. Zamenhof (translator), Malnova Testamento, Genezo 12:14.
Kaj kiam Abram venis Egiptujon, la Egiptoj vidis, ke la virino estas tre bela.
And when Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.


good-looking

en-adj

good-looking (comparative better-looking or more good-looking, superlative best-looking or most good-looking)

better-looking (comparative)
more good-looking (comparative)
best-looking (superlative)
most good-looking (superlative)

/ˈɡʊdˈlʊk.ɪŋ/

From good + looking. Compare Dutch goeduitziend (“good-looking”), German gutaussehend (“good-looking”).

When one of us sees a good-looking guy, we nudge the other one and smile. One guy had the most gorgeous face I had ever seen. Every time we go to the mall we look around for 'that guy' just in case.

2001, Julia DeVillers, Teen Girlfriends:


dowdy

dowdy (comparative dowdier, superlative dowdiest)

dowdier (comparative)
dowdiest (superlative)

Late 16th century. Origin uncertain: probably literally “little poorly dressed woman,” formed from doue, “poorly dressed woman.”
Possibly also related to the Scots dow, meaning to "fade".

[...she was] a perfect saint amongst women, but so dreadfully dowdy that she reminded one of a badly bound hymn-book.

1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC:

Lacking stylishness or neatness; shabby.


fearsome

fearsome (comparative more fearsome, superlative most fearsome)

more fearsome (comparative)
most fearsome (superlative)

From fear + -some. Compare German furchtsam (“fearful”, obsolete also “fearsome”), which this is more closely equivalent to English frightsome, however.


bobby-dazzler

From bobby + dazzler. Unknown. Originated in 19th century in the dialects of Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Suddenly she appeared in the inner doorway rather shyly. She had got a new cotton blouse on. Paul jumped up and went forward.
"Oh, my stars!" he exclaimed. "What a bobby-dazzler!"
She sniffed in a little haughty way, and put her head up.
"It's not a bobby-dazzler at all!" she replied. "It's very quiet."

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “chapter 6”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

(informal, chiefly British and Australian) An attractive or excellent thing or person.


coyote ugly

A girl was coyote ugly if, when a man got too drunk, picked her up, took her to bed, and woke up with her asleep on his arm in the morning, he'd chew his arm off to escape without waking her up.

2003, Georgina Gentry, To Tame A Texan, Zebra Books, →ISBN:

Poodles, Pomeranians, those uglier than coyote ugly Pugs, Chihuahuas—you name it, he'd been in a cage with the fuckers, fighting for his right to a stupid rubber hot dog coated in beef broth while he waited for Gustav to milk his renal glands.

2009, Dakota Cassidy, Kiss & Hell, Penguin, →ISBN:

Crocs are coyote ugly. Some people like the Crocs clog style; others simply hate it.

2011, Howard Lindzon, Philip Pearlman, Ivaylo Ivanhoff, The StockTwits Edge, Enhanced Edition, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 56:

(US, slang, derogatory, originally applied to women) Very ugly.


gracious

head

gracious (plural and weak singular graciouse, comparative graciouser, superlative graciousest)

graciouse (plural)
graciouse (singular weak)
graciouser (comparative)
graciousest (superlative)

English: gracious

Scots: gracious

Yola: graacuse, graashoos

Borrowed from Old French gracious, from Latin grātiōsus. Equivalent to grace + -ous.


belle

From French belle (“beautiful”), from Latin bella.

In her new dress she felt like the belle of the ball.


bedraggled

en-adj

bedraggled (comparative more bedraggled, superlative most bedraggled)

more bedraggled (comparative)
most bedraggled (superlative)

/bɪˈdɹæɡl̩d/

A low rumbling sound was heard; a subterraneous hum; and then all held their breaths; as bedraggled with trailing ropes, and harpoons, and lances, a vast form shot lengthwise, but obliquely from the sea.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Chase.—Third Day.”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 627:

She came at night, and in a storm, with only two attendants, and stood before a peasant’s hut, tired, bedraggled, soaked with rain, “the red print of her lost crown still girdling her brow,” and implored admittance—and was refused!

1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XLVI, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

No three tramps that one could have met in a Surrey lane could have looked more hopeless and bedraggled.

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter XIV, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

As a rule he was neat in his person, but now his clothes were in disorder. He looked suddenly bedraggled. I was convinced he had been drinking, and I smiled.

1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XXVIII, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

Finally delivering “Room on Fire,” the follow-up to their much ballyhooed debut album, the well-heeled but stylishly bedraggled locals try to dispel accusations of one-trick-ponyism.


ornate

ornate (comparative more ornate, superlative most ornate)

more ornate (comparative)
most ornate (superlative)

From Latin ōrnātus, perfect passive participle of ōrnō (“to equip, adorn”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Doublet of orné.


forma

la-noun

fōrma f (genitive fōrmae); first declension

fōrma (canonical feminine)
fōrmae (genitive)
fōrma (nominative singular)
fōrmae (nominative plural)
fōrmae (genitive singular)
fōrmārum (genitive plural)
fōrmae (dative singular)
fōrmīs (dative plural)
fōrmam (accusative singular)
fōrmās (accusative plural)
fōrmā (ablative singular)
fōrmīs (ablative plural)
fōrma (singular vocative)
fōrmae (plural vocative)

Catalan: forma

Friulian: forme

Italian: forma

Old French: forme

Middle French: forme

French: forme (see there for further descendants)

→ Middle English: forme

English: form (see there for further descendants)

Old Galician-Portuguese: [Term?]

Galician: forma

Portuguese: forma

Sardinian: forma

Sicilian: furma

Romansch: furma, fuorma

Spanish: horma

→ Danish: form

→ Romanian: formă

→ Irish: foirm

→ Old Czech: forma (learned) (see there for further descendants)

→ Old Norse: form

Norwegian Bokmål: form

→ Old Polish: forma (learned) (see there for further descendants)

→ Proto-Brythonic: *fʉrβ̃

Middle Welsh: ffuruf, ffuryf

Welsh: ffurf

Old Cornish: furf

→ Spanish: forma

→ Cebuano: hulma

→ Swedish: form

Unknown. Perhaps from an Etruscan *morma, from Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “shape, fashion, appearance, outward form, contour, figure”), with dissimilation *m-m > *f-m, as seen in formīca (“ant”) and formīdō (“ghost, scarecrow”).

der

“Sunt mihi bis septem praestantī corpore nymphae,

“I have twice-seven nymphs, [each] with a gorgeous body, of whom [the nymph] who [has] the most beautiful figure [is] Deiopea.”
(Juno attempts to bribe Aeolus with an arranged marriage. Notes: The dative of possession “sunt mihi” means “they are for me” or simply “I have.” The ablative of quality “praestanti corpore” here is singular despite the plural “nymphae.” The ablative of specification “forma” here means “with respect to appearance.”)


thon

→ Romanian: ton

→ Turkish: ton

From Latin thunnus, thynnus (itself from Ancient Greek θύννος (thúnnos)), possibly through the intermediate of Old Occitan ton.


outlook

From out + look. Perhaps influenced by Chinese 外表 (literally “outside + surface”) and English look (“appearance”). Same etymology as Cantonese outlook.

ncog

How ignorant you are! Admiring the outlook of a same sex person has nothing to do with gay! Some of my male friends admire Andy Lau's and Leslie Cheung's looks quite a lot, but unfortunately, they are NOT gay, not BI, they are totally STRAIGHT!

1996 March 14, Bugs, soc.culture.hongkong.entertainment (Usenet):

Well, first impression strikes. The other half must be somewhat attractive on the outlook to capture you attention ...... how else would you noptice^([sic]) his/her existance?^([sic]) Agree?

1996 July 8, JT, soc.culture.hongkong.entertainment (Usenet):

Find some wooden block under the box to separate it with the ground, do the same to the wire if possible. But the wood is another concern then. May be get a concrete brick la if you can accept its outlook.

1998 July 10, Felix M.C. Li, hk.rec.audio-visual (Usenet):

If you accept the sound of Emsemble^([sic]) Reference. I am sure you will like Primaddona^([sic]) Gold. The Primaddona^([sic]) Gold is much better than the Reference in every aspect. The only draw back is probably the out-look, some people, including my mother, said it look like a coffin.

1998 December 19, and...@my-dejanews.com, hk.rec.audio-visual (Usenet):

Walla-walla was at first nick-named by the European passengers as the engine of the vessel was very noisy. The outlook of the walla-walla (Class 1 motorboat) did not change much in the past decades. The wooden hull, the below-loadline cabin (ie without deck) and the engine in the front part of the cabin were characteristics of these boats.

2000 November 28, Choi Kim Lui, “The Development of Motorboat Services in Hong Kong”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(Hong Kong, colloquial) look; appearance


jolie laide

Literally, “pretty [and] ugly”, or more loosely translated as “with unusual, flawed or quirky good looks”.


dishevelled

en-adj

dishevelled (comparative more dishevelled, superlative most dishevelled)

more dishevelled (comparative)
most dishevelled (superlative)

From earlier dishevely, from Old French deschevelé (modern French déchevelé and échevelé), from des- (“dis-”), + chevel (“hair”) (modern French cheveu). See there for more details.

The men resided in a huge bunk house, which consisted of one room only, with a shack outside where the cooking was done. In the large room were a dozen bunks ; half of them in a very dishevelled state, […]

1913, Robert Barr, chapter 6, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:

This is a crazy, dishevelled, often hilarious film, in which lightning flashes of wit and insight crackle periodically across a plane of tedium. I sometimes felt I was watching the 100-hour version.

2018 August 31, Peter Bradshaw, “The Other Side of the Wind review – lost Orson Welles epic is hurricane of anger and wit”, in The Guardian:

(by extension) Disorderly or untidy in appearance.


krásny

sk-adj

krásny (comparative krajší, superlative najkrajší)

krajší (comparative)
najkrajší (superlative)
krásny (masculine nominative singular)
krásna (feminine nominative singular)
krásne (neuter nominative singular)
krásneho (genitive masculine singular)
krásnej (feminine genitive singular)
krásneho (genitive neuter singular)
krásnemu (dative masculine singular)
krásnej (dative feminine singular)
krásnemu (dative neuter singular)
krásneho (accusative animate masculine singular)
krásny (accusative inanimate masculine singular)
krásnu (accusative feminine singular)
krásne (accusative neuter singular)
krásnom (locative masculine singular)
krásnej (feminine locative singular)
krásnom (locative neuter singular)
krásnym (instrumental masculine singular)
krásnou (feminine instrumental singular)
krásnym (instrumental neuter singular)
krásni (animate masculine nominative plural)
krásne (feminine neuter nominative plural)
krásne (inanimate masculine nominative plural)
krásnych (genitive plural)
krásnym (dative plural)
krásnych (accusative animate masculine plural)
krásne (accusative feminine neuter plural)
krásne (accusative inanimate masculine plural)
krásnych (locative plural)
krásnymi (instrumental plural)

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *krasьnъ, by surface analysis, krása + -ný.


tidy

en-adj

tidy (comparative tidier, superlative tidiest)

tidier (comparative)
tidiest (superlative)

From Middle English tidy, tydy, tidi (“timely, seasonal, opportune”), from tide (“time”) + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian tiedig (“timely, early”), Dutch tijdig (“timely”), German Low German tiedig (“timely”), German zeitig (“seasonal, timely”), Danish tidig (“timely”), Swedish tidig (“timely”).

cog

if weather be fair and tidy

1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry:

(obsolete) In good time; at the right time; timely; seasonable; opportune; favourable; fit; suitable.


cheesecake

en-noun

cheesecake (countable and uncountable, plural cheesecakes)

desc

تْشِيز كَيْك

→ Arabic: تْشِيز كَيْك (tšīz kayk)

→ Armenian: չիզքեյք (čʻizkʻeykʻ)

→ Azerbaijani: çizkeyk

→ Bulgarian: чийзке́йк (čijzkéjk)

→ Chinese: 起士蛋糕 (qǐshì dàngāo), 起司蛋糕 (qǐsī dàngāo), 乳酪蛋糕 (rǔlào dàngāo), 芝士蛋糕 (zhīshì dàngāo) (calque)

→ French: cheesecake, cheese-cake, cheese cake

→ Greek: τσίζκεϊκ (tsízkeïk), τσιζκέικ (tsizkéik), τσεισκέικ (tseiskéik)

→ Hijazi Arabic: تشيزكيك (tšīzkēk)

→ Hindi: चीज़केक (cīzkek)

→ Indonesian: cheesecake

→ Italian: cheesecake

→ Japanese: チーズケーキ (chīzukēki)

→ Kannada: ಚೀಜ಼್ಕೇಕ್ (cīzkēk)

→ Korean: 치즈케이크 (chijeukeikeu)

→ Mongolian: чийзкэйк (čiizkejk)

→ Persian: چیز کیک (čiz keyk)

→ Portuguese: cheesecake

→ Romanian: cheesecake

→ Russian: чи́зкейк (čízkejk), чизке́йк (čizkéjk)

→ Spanish: cheesecake

→ Swedish: cheesecake

→ Ukrainian: чізкейк (čizkejk)

From Middle English chesekake; equivalent to cheese + cake. Compare chess cake.

Company policy forbids displaying cheesecake in the locker rooms.

She was turning back toward the cameraman when she caught the pose of the filing clerk who was sitting on the corner of the desk with her skirt over her knees, her toes pointed down so that her crossed legs showed to advantage.
"Now what the hell are you doing sitting there sticking that nylon out at the camera?" Bertha asked.
(...) A man who had been standing over behind the filing case came out and said, "We're going to need cheesecake, Mrs. Cool. If we don't have cheesecake, the papers won't publish it."

(uncountable) Imagery of scantily clad, sexually attractive young women; pin-ups.


splendor

en-noun

splendor (usually uncountable, plural splendors)

From Anglo-Norman splendur, splendour, or directly from its source Latin splendor, from the verb splendere (“to shine”).

The splendor of the Queen's coronation was without comparison.

The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

Magnificent appearance, display or grandeur.


likeness

From Middle English liknesse, from Old English līcness, ġelīcnes (“the quality of being like or equal; likeness; image; copy; pattern; example; parable”), from Proto-West Germanic *galīkanassī (“likeness”), equivalent to like + -ness.
Cognate with West Frisian likenis (“likeness”), Dutch gelijkenis (“similarity; likeness; parable”), German Low German Glieknis (“form; semblance; likeness; parable”), German Gleichnis (“form; semblance; image; likeness; parable; simile”). The verb is derived from the noun. Compare also Old Norse líkneskja (“figure, image, appearance, likeness”).

noncog

A foe in the likeness of a friend

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.


resemble

en-verb

resemble (third-person singular simple present resembles, present participle resembling, simple past and past participle resembled)

resembles (present singular third-person)
resembling (participle present)
resembled (participle past)
resembled (past)

From Middle English resemblen, from Anglo-Norman resembler, ressembler, from re- + sembler (“to seem”). By surface analysis, re- + semble.

And th'other all yclad in garments light, / Discolour'd like to womanish disguise, / He did resemble to his Ladie bright [...].

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(transitive, now rare, archaic) To compare; to regard as similar, to liken.


voluptuousness

en-noun

voluptuousness (countable and uncountable, plural voluptuousnesses)


ugliness

ugliness (countable and uncountable, plural uglinesses)

His best friend would not have called him good-looking, but he was the fortunate possessor of that cheerful type of ugliness which inspires immediate confidence in its owner.

1920, Herman Cyril McNeile, chapter 1, in Bulldog Drummond:

Everything that's realistic has some sort of ugliness in it. Even a flower is ugly when it wilts, a bird when it seeks its prey, the ocean when it becomes violent. Sharon Tate


guapo

es-adj

guapo (feminine guapa, masculine plural guapos, feminine plural guapas, superlative guapísimo)

guapa (feminine)
guapos (masculine plural)
guapas (feminine plural)
guapísimo (superlative)

→ Cebuano: gwapo

→ Portuguese: guapo

→ Galician: guapo

→ Tagalog: guwapo

→ French: gouape

→ Neapolitan: guappo

→ English: wop

desctree

→? English: gwop, guap, gwap, gwuap
→ German: Gwop
→ Russian: гвап (gvap), гуа́п (guáp)

Ultimately from Latin vappa (“flat wine; figuratively, worthless person”), probably not directly but through the intermediate of dialectal Old French wape, gape, gouape, which has also received influence from Proto-Germanic *hwapjaną (“to breathe, air out, let go to waste, become sour”). At one point meant "rascal" or "ruffian" and evolved in meaning over time.

der

Los chicos son guapos.

good-looking; handsome, pretty (describes a man or a woman)


haggard

en-adj

haggard (comparative more haggard, superlative most haggard)

more haggard (comparative)
most haggard (superlative)

From Middle French haggard, from Old French faulcon hagard (“wild falcon”) ( > French hagard (“dazed”)), from Middle High German hag (“coppice”) ( > archaic German Hag (“hedge, grove”)). Akin to Frankish *hagia ( > French haie (“hedge”))

Pale and haggard faces.

A gradual descent into a haggard and feeble state.

The years of hardship made her look somewhat haggard.

Staring his eyes, and haggard was his look.

1685, John Dryden, The Despairing Lover:

Then there was a pale, care-wrinkled woman, not old, but haggard, and already with streaks of gray among her hair, like silver ribbons; one of those women, naturally delicate, whom you at once recognize as worn to death by a brute—probably, a drunken brute—of a husband, and at least nine children.

1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields:

I looked at the morning / After being up all night / I looked at my haggard face in the bathroom light / I looked out the window / And I saw that ragged soul take flight

1976, Joni Mitchell (lyrics and music), “Black Crow”, in Hejira:

By the end of two weeks there isn't a county in England where he hasn't pledged his holiness six different ways — which is not to deny that intermittently he has visions of himself as a haggard apostle of the life renounced, converting beautiful women and millionaires to Christian poverty.

Looking exhausted, worried, or poor in condition


unattractive

unattractive (comparative more unattractive, superlative most unattractive)

more unattractive (comparative)
most unattractive (superlative)


blemish

From Middle English blemisshen, blemissen, from Old French blemiss-, stem of Old French blemir, blesmir (“make pale, injure, wound, bruise”) (French blêmir), from Old Frankish *blesmijan, *blasmijan (“to make pale”), from Old Frankish *blasmī (“pale”), from Proto-Germanic *blasaz (“white, pale”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine”). Cognate with Dutch bles (“white spot”), German blass (“pale”), Old English āblered (“bare, uncovered, bald, shaven”).

cog

Ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats.

1769, Oxford Standard Text, “King James Bible”, in Leviticus, 22, xix:

Any foot shape deviating from this model is conceived as a blemish, and the animal is unclean.

1997, Jean Soler, “5: The Semiotics of Food in the Bible”, in Carole Counihan, Penny Van Esterik, editors, Food and Culture: A Reader, page 61:

There are a very large number of types of blemish and the smallest blemish visible to a human can be surprisingly small, for example less than 10μm deep, which may be on the surface of a heavily embossed tile.

2003, A. K. Forrest, “Chapter 6: Surface Defect Detection on Ceramics”, in Mark Graves, Bruce Batchelor, editors, Machine Vision for the Inspection of Natural Products, page 193:

It comes as a surprise to some people, but blemishes can strike at any age. To minimize the appearance of facial blemishes or pimples, use a concealer with a dry texture; it will cling to the blemish better, last throughout the day, and not irritate the skin or initiate more breakouts.

2011, Robert Jones, Makeup Makeovers Beauty Bible: Expert Secrets for Stunning Transformations, page 119:

A small flaw which spoils the appearance of something, a stain, a spot.


blemish

en-verb

blemish (third-person singular simple present blemishes, present participle blemishing, simple past and past participle blemished)

blemishes (present singular third-person)
blemishing (participle present)
blemished (participle past)
blemished (past)

we see ordinarie examples by this licence which wonderfully blemisheth the authoritie and lustre of our law, never to stay upon one sentence, but to run from one to another judge, to decide one same case.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

Generally, varieties in current use for processing are resilient, if not wholly resistant to blemishing diseases and disorders.

2009, Michael A. Kirkman, “Chapter 2: Global Markets fo Processed Potato Products”, in Jaspreet Singh, Lovedeep Kaur, editors, Advances in Potato Chemistry and Technology, page 40:

I mean it reaches a point of ridiculousness in some regards, and one′s seen actually many good schemes here in San Francisco, for example, that have been blemished by an overly strict adherence to codes.

2011, Rob Imrie, Emma Street, Architectural Design and Regulation, unnumbered page:

(transitive) To spoil the appearance of.


petite

en-adj

petite (comparative more petite, superlative most petite)

more petite (comparative)
most petite (superlative)

Borrowed from French petite f, feminine of petit m (“small, little”).

(especially of a woman) Fairly short and of slim build.

миньонка

Of a woman: fairly short and of slim build


petite

The primary structure of the mitochondrial genomes of these petites had been previously determined […]

2005, Giorgio Bernardi, Structural and Evolutionary Genomics, page 39:

Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Saccharomyces cerevisiae#Translingual

(genetics) A mutant first discovered in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, forming small colonies when grown in the presence of fermentable carbon sources such as glucose.


foxy

foxy (comparative foxier, superlative foxiest)

foxier (comparative)
foxiest (superlative)

(informal) Attractive, sexy (of a woman).


linda

eo-head

linda (accusative singular lindan, plural lindaj, accusative plural lindajn)

lindan (accusative singular)
lindaj (plural)
lindajn (accusative plural)


sex symbol

→ Catalan: sex symbol

→ French: sex-symbol

→ Portuguese: sex symbol

→ Spanish: sex symbol

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sex symbol.wav

1871 used in Anthropology, first applied to a person in 1959 (Marilyn Monroe).

In the 50's and 60's Marilyn Monroe was considered a sex symbol.

A person who embodies the sexual ideals of a mass audience.


callipygous

en-adj

callipygous (comparative more callipygous, superlative most callipygous)

more callipygous (comparative)
most callipygous (superlative)

From Ancient Greek κάλλος (kállos, “beauty”) + πυγή (pugḗ, “buttocks”) + -ous.

One does not fall very desperately in love with a loud speaker, however pretty, however firmly plump (for Philip's tastes were rather old-fashioned), however attractively callipygous.

1928, Aldous Huxley, chapter VII, in Point Counter Point, London: Chatto & Windus, page 122:

He enjoyed Nurse Sue Ann Duckett’s long white legs and supple, callipygous ass; he often neglected to remember that she was quite slim and fragile from the waist up and hurt her unintentionally in moments of passion when he hugged her too roughly.

1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC:

The other hand came up and together they described a near callipygous shape.

1976, Samuel R. Delany, Triton, Bantam Books,, →ISBN, page 105:


you can't judge a book by its cover

En-au-you can't judge a book by its cover.ogg

(idiomatic, figurative) It is not possible to make reliable judgments about things or people by considering external appearances alone.

it is not possible to judge things by external appearances alone

لَا تَحْكُم عَلَى كِتَابِ مِِنْ غِلَافِهِ

אַל תִּסְתַּכֵּל בַּקַּנְקַן אֶלָּא בַמֶּה שֶׁיֵּשׁ בּוֹ (ál tistakél baqanqán, éla bamé sheyésh bó, literally “Don't look at the jug, but at what's inside it.”)

जाति ना पूछो साधु की; पूछ लीजिए ज्ञान (jāti nā pūcho sādhu kī; pūch lījie jñān, literally “Ask not a saint of his caste; rather, of his knowledge.”)

þú getur ekki rannsakað hund eftir hárinu

go minic bíonn croí geal i gcraiceann donn

's tric a bhios cridhe gheal ann an seiche dhonn

hayvanın alacası dışında, insanın alacası içinde

не судіть про книгу за її обкладинкою

ne suditʹ pro knyhu za jiji obkladynkoju

anything essential is invisible to the eyes


in shape

I hope to get in shape for summer swimsuit season.

Whoa, look over here
We got a cute little ol' runner to the right
Blue shorts, no shirt
You're looking good darling
That's right, stay in shape

(idiomatic) In a good state of physical fitness or bodily appearance.

en forme

(idiomatic) in a good state of physical fitness


favourable

English: favourable, favorable

Borrowed from Old French favorable, from Latin favorabilis; equivalent to favour + -able.


muñeco

es-noun

muñeco m (plural muñecos, feminine muñeca, feminine plural muñecas)

muñecos (plural)
muñeca (feminine)
muñecas (feminine plural)


dainty

en-adj

dainty (comparative daintier, superlative daintiest)

daintier (comparative)
daintiest (superlative)

From Middle English deynte (as noun), from Old French deintié, from Latin dignitātem. Doublet of dignity.

As for thoſe People of the Eaſt, (Goa, Calecute, Malaca,) they vvere a Fine, and Dainty People; Frugall, and yet Elegant, though not Militar.

1622 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “An Advertisement Touching an Holy VVarre. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany VVorks of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, →OCLC, page 104:

Those dainty limbs which nature lent / For gentle usage and soft delicacy.

1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:

However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

The cutting sides were gay with heather in bloom, and masses of dainty Scots bluebells, while patches of clear sky overhead were bringing life and colour to the sea.

1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 9:


hunk

Probably borrowed from West Flemish hunke (“hunk; chunk”), of obscure origin. Probably from an earlier *humke, *humpke, a diminutive related to Dutch homp (“hunk; lump”), English hump, equivalent to hump + -kin. The sense of an attractive man is recorded in Australian slang in 1941, in jive talk in 1945.

The unfortunate thing about calling the season seven finale “The Dragon And The Wolf” is you can’t even reference it by name without picturing Daenerys Targaryen’s long-awaited hook-up with Jon Snow, her strapping hunk of an ally and also her nephew.

2017 August 27, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:

Diana’s most recent romantic adventure at that time was with the sturdy hunk Will Carling, captain of the England rugby team, whom she had met in 1995 working out at the Chelsea Harbor Club gym.

April 5 2022, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair:

(informal) An attractive man, especially one who is muscular.


тас

See synonyms at дьүһүн (jühün).


sexpot

Rather than asking her to play a shallow sexpot, Clash by Night and Don't Bother to Knock ask Monroe to play women with strong opinions and complex psyches.

2019, Amanda Konkle, Some Kind of Mirror: Creating Marilyn Monroe, Rutgers University Press, →ISBN:

After appearing in commercials and soaps as a child, Applegate broke out as a teenage sexpot on the long-running Fox sitcom “Married With Children,” then won an Emmy for her work on “Friends.”

2022 November 1, Alexis Soloski, “Christina Applegate Pours One Out for ‘Dead to Me’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:


countenance

en-noun

countenance (countable and uncountable, plural countenances)

From Middle English contenaunce, countenaunce, from Anglo-Norman countenance and Old French contenance, from the present participle of contenir, or from Late Latin continentia, and therefore a doublet of continence.

But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 4:5:

It was as if the countenance were for a brief while allowed to wear the likeness of the peaceful and spiritual world whither the soul had departed.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXXI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 319:

But Richmond, his grandfather's darling, after one thoughtful glance cast under his lashes at that uncompromising countenance appeared to lose himself in his own reflections.

1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:

With such powerful selling-points, why is it, as recent editorial comment and correspondence in this journal has revealed, that "Condor" has yet to bring a warm glow to the countenance of the L.M.R.'s accountants?

1960 January, G. Freeman Allen, “"Condor"—British Railways' fastest freight train”, in Trains Illustrated, page 46:

Appearance, especially the features and expression of the face.


Apollo

From Latin Apollō, from Ancient Greek Ἀπόλλων (Apóllōn).

Apollo 11 landed people on the moon for the first time.

(NASA, space science) A United States space program, and the vehicles it created, used for human travel to the moon.


adonis

[ʔɐˈd̪oː.n̪ɪs]

Borrowed from Spanish adonis. See more at Adonis.


bonnie

en-adj

bonnie (comparative bonnier or more bonnie, superlative bonniest or most bonnie)

bonnier (comparative)
more bonnie (comparative)
bonniest (superlative)
most bonnie (superlative)

From Middle English *bonie (attested only rarely as bon, boun), probably from Old French bon, feminine bonne (“good”), from Latin bonus (“good”). See bounty, and compare bonus, boon.

O once I lov'd a bonnie lass, / Aye, and I love her still

1774, “Handsome Nell”, Robert Burns (lyrics), published 1803:

(Scotland, Geordie) Beautiful; pretty; attractive; handsome.


bonny

head

bonny (comparative mair bonny, superlative maist bonny)

mair bonny (comparative)
maist bonny (superlative)

Till bonny Susan sped a-cross the plain.

Far from the bonnie banks of Ayr.

1786, Robert Burns, Farewell to the Banks of Ayr:

handsome; beautiful; pretty; attractively lively and graceful


attractiveness

en-noun

attractiveness (countable and uncountable, plural attractivenesses)

(countable) The result of being attractive.


beer goggles

/ˈbɪə ˌɡɒɡl̩z/

/ˈbɪɚ ˌɡɑɡ(ə)l/

Originally 1980s US college slang, from the notion that consumption of beer and other alcoholic beverages causes people to see things differently, as if wearing a type of goggles.

“Their findings essentially suggest that while intoxication may not have resulted in beer goggles, it did seem to increase liquid courage, in that people were more likely to indicate a desire to interact with attractive others,” said Monk, whose previous research had found some evidence to support the beer goggles effect.

2023 August 30, Linda Geddes, “‘Beer goggles’ study finds alcohol does not make people seem better looking”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(idiomatic, originally US, humorous, informal) The illusion that people are more sexually attractive, brought on by alcohol consumption.

bierbril

wyższa atrakcyjność spodowowana przez alkohol


hunky

en-adj

hunky (comparative hunkier, superlative hunkiest)

hunkier (comparative)
hunkiest (superlative)


take after

en-verb

take after (third-person singular simple present takes after, present participle taking after, simple past took after, past participle taken after)

takes after (present singular third-person)
taking after (participle present)
took after (past)
taken after (participle past)

She takes after her grandmother with her wide eyes and quiet disposition.

To resemble (a parent or ancestor) in appearance or habit.