different between pulchritude vs pulchritudinous

English

Etymology

From Middle English pulcritude, from Latin pulchrit?d?, from pulcher (“beautiful”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: p?l?kr?-t?d?
• (UK) IPA^(key): [?p???k???tju?d]
• (US) IPA^(key): [?p???k???tu?d]

Noun

pulchritude (usually uncountable, plural pulchritudes)

1. Physical beauty.
   • 1978, Charles D. Benson and William Barnaby Faherty, Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations, NASA Special Publication 4204, 1978, ch. 4 [1]

     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.

   • 1979, The Jerk, 00:18:20

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

   Synonym: comeliness

Derived terms

• pulchritudinous

Translations

English

Etymology

Latin pulchrit?d? (“pulchritude”) +? -ous, from pulcher (“beautiful”) + -t?d?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?lk???tju?d?n?s/

Adjective

pulchritudinous (comparative more pulchritudinous, superlative most pulchritudinous)

1. (literary) Having great physical beauty.
   • 1994, Orson Scott Card, The Ships of Earth [1]:

     But Shedemei had long since grown out of her adolescent jealousy of pulchritudinous girls.

   • 1966, Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress [2]:

     “The first example in each series,” Mike offered, “would be, on the basis of my associational analyses of such data, of such pulchritudinous value as to please any healthy, mature human male.”

   • 1998, Carole Nelson Douglas, Cat in a Flamingo Fedora [3]:

     “I had standing instructions to let any pulchritudinous females into Mr. Cooke’s dressing room,” Mike admitted.

     “Pulchritudinous? He really said that?”

     “No, I said that.”

Synonyms

• comely

Derived terms

• pulchritudinously

Related terms

• pulchritude

Translations