different between playfellow vs beau

English

Etymology

play +? fellow

Noun

playfellow (plural playfellows)

1. (dated) playmate; companion for someone (especially children) to play with.
   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

     "I’ve brought you a new playfellow," the Fairy said. "You must be very kind to him and teach him all he needs to know in Rabbitland, for he is going to live with you for ever and ever!"

   • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 5

     Now she was within ten feet of the two unsuspecting little playfellows--carefully she drew her hind feet well up beneath her body, the great muscles rolling under the beautiful skin.

   • 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, chapter XIX:

     "Linton is just six months younger than I am, {...} How delightful it will be to have him for a playfellow!"

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French beau, from Latin bellus (“beautiful”). Doublet of bello.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /b??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /bo?/
• (UK)
• Homophone: bow
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

beau (plural beaux or beaus)

1. (dated) A man with a reputation for fine dress and etiquette; a dandy or fop.
   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, chapter 21

     “I do not comprehend the meaning of the word. But this I can say, that if he ever was a beau before he married, he is one still, for there is not the smallest alteration in him.”

     “Oh! dear! one never thinks of married mens’^[sic] being beaux—they have something else to do.”

2. (dated) A male lover; a boyfriend.
   • 1917, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, p. 142:

     Hannah's beau takes all her time 'n' thought, and when she gits a husband her mother'll be out o' sight and out o' mind.

   • 2009, Philippa Bourke, Monsters and Critics [1], Dec 10, 2009:

     Kristin Davis has taken time out to enjoy the surf and sand with her Australian beau, photographer Russell James.

3. A male escort.
4. A suitor of a lady.

Translations

See also

• beau-
• beautiful
• Beau

References

• beau in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• Aube, aube

Aromanian

Alternative forms

• beu

Etymology

From Latin bib?. Compare Romanian bea, beau.

Verb

beau (third-person present singular indicative bea, past participle biutã)

1. I drink

Related terms

• beari/beare
• biut
• biutor
• biuturã
• parabeau

French

Etymology

From Middle French beau, from Old French biau, bel, from Latin bellus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bo/
• Rhymes: -o
• Homophones: bau, baux, beaux, bot, bots

Adjective

beau (masculine singular before vowel bel, feminine singular belle, masculine plural beaux, feminine plural belles)

1. handsome, fine, attractive
2. nice
3. fair (weather)

Usage notes

• To avoid hiatus, the form bel is used before masculine singular nouns that begin with a vowel or mute h.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? English: beau, Beau, belle, Belle

Noun

beau m (plural beaux)

1. (Louisiana) boyfriend

Coordinate terms

• belle
• blonde
• femme
• gars
• homme

Further reading

• “beau” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• aube

Middle English

Alternative forms

• beu, bew, bewe

Etymology

From Old French bel, biau, from Latin bellus, from Old Latin *duenelos. Doublet of bel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?u?/
• Rhymes: -?u?

Adjective

beau

1. good, fine

References

• “beau, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Middle French

Alternative forms

• bel

Etymology

From Old French beau, one of the variants of biau.

Adjective

beau m (feminine singular belle, masculine plural beaux, feminine plural belles)

1. beautiful; handsome; attractive

Descendants

• French: beau

Old French

Adjective

beau m (oblique and nominative feminine singular bele)

1. Alternative form of biau

Declension

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [be?aw]

Verb

beau

1. first-person singular present indicative of bea
2. first-person singular present subjunctive of bea
3. third-person plural present indicative of bea
4. third-person plural imperfect indicative of bea